The Bookshop and the Bar
by ColorfulTurtles
Summary: When disaster strikes her bookstore Lucy is left wondering how she's going to pick up the pieces when suddenly she finds herself the focus of the bar manager next door. Little does she know the bar might just be the reason she was caught in the crossfire. Because unbeknownst to Lucy the pink haired manager might just be a big part of a unsavory business with the bar being their HQ.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: So this is my second Nalu fic on this sight, it takes a but more a...darker?...spin then my other one so I hope that you all enjoy! I have no idea how long I'm going to make this one so anything is possible I guess, lol. Thank you for reading leave a review if you like!**

* * *

Fate was cruel, she had been since the time Lucy had been a small child standing in the cemetery watching as her patents' caskets were being lowered into the cold ground. She had only been four when both of her parent's had been killed in a freak car accident leaving Lucy the heiress to a massive winery/brewery as well as massive estates that she would gain control of on her twenty fourth birthday as per her parent's will. This familiar aching in her heart was something that Lucy was used to since she had only ever been met with heartache after heartache though she doggedly kept trying to find the good in the world and remain hopeful of a brighter future.

But as she stood across the street on the sidewalk watching her pride and joy go up in flames Lucy felt her hope slowly fade away as if the heat from the inferno melted it. It had taken years, twelve years to be precise, for her to finally take a step back and admire her hard work as her bookshop blossomed as it was awarded Magnolia's Top Bookstore for the third year in a row. It had taken only four minuets for the flames to spread from the bar next door and devour everything she had worked so hard to achieve. Even though the sprinklers she'd had implemented in her shop had kicked on the second the flames broke through the walls and had started to spread the intensity of the flames had just been to much, the books to much of a adrenaline boost for the flames there'd been no hope of stopping it. Even now the fire fighters were having a difficult time keeping the flames from spreading as they attempted to put them out.

"Lucy!" A short blue haired woman shouted, sprinting towards her, worry on her face as she skidded to a stop her hands instantly clutching Lucy's arm as she looked from the building to Lucy as she panted, obviously having sprinted from wherever she had been. "Are you okay? You weren't in there were you?"

"No, I wasn't." Lucy murmured softly not looking away as she watched the flames lick at the treasured hand carved sign. It had been a present from the woods-smith she had made a business agreement with to get discounts from his shop. Tears slowly filling her eyes and rolling down her cheeks she shook her head wrapping her arms tightly around herself. "It's gone, it's all gone Levy."

"I know Lucy, I know." Levy murmured soothingly and wrapped her arms around Lucy she cried silently.

* * *

It had taken the fire fighters three and a half hours to finally put out the blaze and by then Lucy's bookstore was completely in ruins while the bar right next door and the coffee shop, which Levy owned and managed, were only minimally damaged. It had seemed that Levy's cafe had only sustained smoke damage from the flames since the cafe and bookshop were open to one another thanks to a now ruined hand made archway that Lucy had had made when she and Levy had decided to make a business agreement to hopefully flood each other's businesses with more customers.

"Lucy Heartfilia?" The fire martial prompted, gently touching her elbow to get her attention as she stared at the smoldering ruins of her shop.

"Yes." She said and wiped the tears off her cheeks before she turned towards the man. "Can I help you?"

"Ms. Heartfilia it's far to soon to determine what started the inferno but we do know that it originated from the bar next door to your shop." He told her and glanced towards the ruins. "It's to soon for us to determine if it is safe to allow you to sift through the remains to see if there is anything salvageable, however, you might be able to tomorrow I can give you a call after our inspection if you would like."

She gave him a grateful smile. "That would be wonderful. Thank you for all of your work."

"I would like to apologize-"

She shook her head and put her hand on his arm. "It's a bookshop, sir, it was kindling to the flames."

He sighed. "I wish there was still something we could have done, my family and I frequented your shop Ms. Heartfilia, the rankings were right your shop is number one."

"Thank you." She said and turned back to stared at the smoldering building as the fire martial moved off. "Was," She murmured softly. "It was number one." She jumped when her cell phone rang suddenly in her pocket and she scrambled to pull it out and check the number. A fresh wave of tears filled her eyes as she saw the familiar number. "Virgo." She answered immediately, her chin quivering.

"Princess are you alright!" The older woman demanded in a sudden rush.

"Yes, yes I'm all right." She said and wrapped her free arm around herself as she sniffled trying to hold back the tears. After her parent's had died their housekeeper, Virgo, as well as her father's butler and foremen had all stepped up becoming her guardians and had raised her as best they could. They hadn't tried to replace her parent's, but offer any solace that hey could to a grieving four year old child and offer her the mother and father figures that she needed due to the loss of her parents. "I wasn't there when the fire spread."

"Oh thank the gods." Virgo breathed. "Loke and Capricorn are on their way now, they should be arriving any moment now."

Smiling softly Lucy shook her head. "Virgo, you know that they don't need-"

The squealing of tires interrupted her and Lucy turned her head and watched as both doors to a black SUV were shoved open.

"They're here." She said.

"Good," Virgo let out a sight of relief. "I will be there tomorrow morning, for now allow Capricorn to handle everything."

"Okay." Lucy said and said her farewells as she watched a tall salt and pepper haired man emerged gracefully from the car and surveyed the area calmly, his eyes landing on the smoldering remains of her shop while another much younger man launched himself form the car.

"Lucy!" He shouted his orange hair standing up in his usual spiky mane as he scoured the area searching for her wildly before his eyes landed on her and he took off at a dead sprint, sliding to a stop in front of her he enveloped her in his arms, cradling her against him as she let herself fall apart, sobs ripping her apart as she clutched his suit jacket in her fists. "It's okay Lucy, it's okay. We'll take care of everything."

"Miss Lucy are you alright?" Capricorn demanded having joined the two of them at a much more sedate pace, he rested his hand on her shoulder as Loke stroked the back of her head.

"Yes." She managed as her sobs slowly ceased and she just leaned against Loke, attempting to compose herself. "I w-wasn't in th-there when the fl-flames spread." She said through her hiccups.

"Good." Capricorn sighed in relief. "You do not need to worry Miss Lucy, Loke and I will see to all the insurance and financial issues are dealt with. You and Virgo can focus on how you are going to redecorate."

Lucy pulled back slightly and looked from one to the other. "You guys aren't going to try to convince me to come home?"

"We would prefer if you would come back to the mansion to take over the winery." Capricorn said with a nod.

"But we do understand that you are happy here in Magnolia tending to your bookshop and your budding partnership with Levy." Loke said still stroking the back of her head. "Therefore we are going to support you in your wish to carry on here, so allow me and Capricorn to see to all the financial and insurance parts."

"Yes," Capricorn agreed with one of his rare caring smiles. "Virgo said she would be arriving on the morrow to go with you to look at some contractors to begin the remodeling process."

Slowly Lucy's eyes filled with new tears, though these ones filled with a budding new hope. "I love you guys!" She cried and threw her arms around both of them. Both of them wrapped their arms around her, as if reassuring themselves that she was indeed unharmed. To say that Lucy was surprised that Capricorn returned her blatant show of affection was an understatement since the older man was much more reserved and composed then Lucy and Loke. It was rared that he would do more then simply rest his hand either on her shoulder or the top of her head. "I'm sorry that I worried you." She murmured.

"Do not apologize Lucy." Loke murmured just as softly and nuzzled her cheek with his own. "None of this was your fault."

"Loke is right Ms Lucy," Capricorn agreed. "The fault is not yours to blame, Levy informed us that the fire started in the establishment next to your bookshop, so if anyone is to blame it is theirs."

"Do you wanna say that to my face." Someone snarled, startling Lucy while her two guardians simply pulled away and rested their hand on her shoulders as they all turned towards their attention to the man.

Lucy blinked at him, taking in his slanted obsidian colored eyes and his tousled spiky pink hair. She stared back at him as he glared at her. "Capricorn didn't mean to insult you." she said apologetically.

"Ahh so that gives you the right to place blame?" He demanded with a sneer.

She blinked at him and leaned back into the two reassuring walls behind her.

"Was it not _your_ establishment that caught fire to begin with?" Capricorn retorted.

"Capricorn." She rebuked softly, reaching up to rest her hand on top of his. "Look," She said and turned her attention back to the man standing in front of them glaring at the three of them with hostile eyes. "It's been a really long and rather upsetting evening. I'm sure your just as upset in your own way as I and my guardians are. With that being said I apologize for any insult that Capricorn insinuated."

The man stared down at her before he tsked. "We'll be talking." He snarled and turned, moving towards a group of people a ways away.

Lucy sighed and turned, frowning up at Capricorn she sighed. "Their my neighbors, do you _have_ to stir up trouble?"

"If they cause any problems in the future you can-"

"Stop right there!" She hissed and shook her head pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation. "Picking fights with the people who own the bar next door to my shop is not the way that I want things to go. I know that it's been five years since I opened the shop up but I still don't know anyone who works there or the owner. So I would rather not make enemies the first time that I meet someone from there."

"You are absolutely correct Miss Lucy." Capricorn agreed and tugged at the lapels of his butlers uniform as if to straighten his already immaculate uniform. "Therefore I should go and apologize."

"No." She said and help up a staying hand when moved as if to approach the man. "Right now, we just need to let everyone calm down, he was obviously very upset about all of this, at least I'm assuming that's what's wrong. And you two are very upset about this as well, but in regards to me. Just for right now, let it go please. I'll deal with it once everything has calmed down."

"As you with Miss Lucy." Capricorn said and bent slightly at the waist as if bowing to her.

"So where are you two staying?" She asked after a moment.

"Well, since it was such short notice we'll be staying with you." Loke said with a grin as he waggled his brows at her.

Lucy stared at him for a moment before she threw her head back in laughter while Capricorn turned to him and calmly almost emotionlessly lectured him on the reasons behind why a guardian did not flirt with their ward. Slowly Lucy opened her eyes to watch the soothingly familiar exchange between the two men, it had been far to long since she had seen all three of her guardians, though she would have preferred for them to just show up with a surprise visit that they used to do not rush up here due to her shop burning to the ground. But now they were all here, well Virgo was arriving tomorrow but that was pretty much the same, and between the four of them it would be no time before her shop was back up on it's feet with it's door reopened.


	2. Chapter 2

Sighing Lucy moved deeper into the store the smell of wood, finish, and turpentine filling the air and making her stomach knot up as it did every time that she came here. It wasn't the smells, no she loved the scents, it was the owner of the shop that had her nerves frayed by the time that she left. He was a very lovable man, one of the most friendly personalities, but it was the air of power that surrounded him. That and the fact that no matter what time she came here there were always burly men whom glared at her whenever she came within speaking distance of the owner, and then there was the knowledge that he literally knew _everyone_ and if she said or did one thing to upset him he could quite literally send her shop into the dust with one measly phone call. With that being as it was Lucy had demanded that Virgo remain outside and under no circumstances was the woman to enter the shop.

The woman had already managed to rile up several store owners who were known to have the calmest of tempers. All while she had stood there with a bored expression on her face, her tone implying that the shop owners were incompetent in their professions.

Sighing again she rubbed at her temples as she frowned the feeling of an impending migraine making her wince. "Eeek!" She squeaked as she ran smack into something solid and unforgiving, staggering back Lucy flailed slightly the folder holding all of her plans landing on the floor with a clatter some of the papers scattering across the cement floor as she herself landed on her butt with a thud, pain shooting up her wrists as she caught herself with her hands behind her. Looking up with wide eyes she stared into glaring obsidian eyes, his hair just as spiky and wild and pink as it had been last night in the fire light. She stared up at him silently, no doubt all the color draining from her cheeks as his expression darkened even more.

"Why are you staring at me as if I'm going to rip you apart?" He snarled startling her so much that she jumped.

"I-I, u-uh... u-um..." Lucy stuttered not knowing at all what to say.

"Do not frighten her Natsu." An deep yet soothingly comforting voice said and Lucy's head snapped in that direction.

"Warrod." She breathed in relief a beaming smile spreading across her face. "I'm sorry for the sudden intrusion."

"It is quite all right Lucy, dear." The older gentlemen said making his way towards her as Lucy scrambled to her knees and gathered up her plans before she pushed herself to her feet and backed away from the glaring man, steadfastly avoiding looking in his direction. "I heard what happened to your shop, my condolences my dear, that must have been quite a blow."

She sighed and shook her head as she hugged the folder tight to her chest. "It's still bleeding but I have faith that it'll heal and be even better then it was."

Warrod reached out and lightly brushed her hair out of her face from where it had escaped the bun she's put it into that morning. "And am I right to assume that is why you brought yourself to my shop?"

Lucy nodded and blushed in embarrassment. "I might have stayed up a bit to late drawing up plans for the remodel of the shop. Though I went way overboard but I, well, I was wondering if you and Elfman would like to make some new pieces for it since the ones that I purchased were unfortunately destroyed."

He stared at her a contemplating look on his face. "Come, dear, show me the plans that you drew up and I will make my decision."

Lucy let out a silent sigh as he turned away to lead the way to his private office, this had been the main battle that she had come in to this shop to fight. It was one thing to ask to buy a wood-work done buy Warrod Sequen but it was a whole other ball game to request a commission of not just one but _several_ pieces. Though now she had to fight the battle to gain his interest in creating the pieces that she desperately wanted for her shop, she did however have faith.

Squaring her shoulders Lucy followed the older man towards the back, never noticing when Natsu's brow arched at the sudden invitation Warrod had extended to her so warmly. It was clear tha the exchange had interested him as he followed behind the two, taking the chance to look over the blonde as she moved with silent grace and a quietly timid confidence through the shop.

Warrod shot him a quick look but remained silent as he allowed Lucy to pass him at the doorway to the smaller conference room. "Now, dear, show me the plans you made."

Nodding Lucy set the folder onto the table and pulled it open, sifting through the papers until she found the ones that she was looking for and spread them out, lining up the ones that went with the others. It took her two minuets to line them all up so it showed certain parts of her shop that were heavily trafficked as well as several other sports that were very obviously for those whom frequented the shop and tended to stay and read in the small nooks that Lucy had strategically placed around her shop.

"These are all the spots that I was thinking of asking if you would like to make pieces for them." She said as she finished laying them out, straightened she looked them over and nodded slightly.

"Whoa." Natsu murmured in surprise at her skillfully drawn pictures.

"Lucy," Warrod said and she turned her head to look at him and he stared at her, for once not smiling. "This totals thirty five pieces that you would like to commission."

She blushed and shook her head. "Oh no, you can pick however many you guys would even want to make." Turning she looked over her drawings. "Like I said I went way overboard on my plans, but there's so many new possibility that I can do now that the slate has been wiped clean, so to speak. I wanted to make the shop feel more like...home, for lack of better words, and since I can afford it now I though why not ask if you would like to help me with it." She said and clasped her elbows as she turned to Warrod with a smile. "So, what do you think?" She asked slowly, almost hesitantly.

He stared at her then looked over the drawings. "What did you have in mind for each place?" He prompted.

"I'm leaving the creative decision up to you guys here." She said and chuckled slightly at his stunned expression.

"You want us to have complete creative decision over the designs?" He demanded.

"Mhmm." She said nodding then paused. "Though if Elfman does make a piece I would like for him to be reminded that my bookshop is a family frequented establishment. But other than that you all have compete and total say so as to what you all are going to make for each location."

Warrod was silent for a moment. "Do you already have someone whom is going to be rebuilding the shop?"

"Yes." She said and reached into her purse to pull out a business card and pass it to him. "My adoptive brothers Sting and Rogue are heading the project. They surprised me this morning by showing up at my door to announce that they were taking over the remodeling, though with me making the blueprints." She grinned. "They're awaiting your calls."

Warrod narrowed his eyes at her. "You assumed that I would agree to this?"

"No," She said and shook her head. "I just told them that I was coming to see you to see if you would be interested in taking on this project and if you agreed you would want to contact them."

He sighed and turned back to the table stroking his chin thoughtfully. "This is going to take quite a bit of time. I am going to have to pull everyone in order to have all thirty five pieces done by the time that your brothers finish the remodeling."

Lucy stared at him. "Huh?"

"Oh, that's right they wanted me to surprise you." Warrod said then motioned towards the door and she turned her eyes going wide.

"Sting? Rogue?" She asked taking in the blonde haired blue eyed man leaning against the doorway his arms crossed with a devilish smile on his lips while a slightly taller black haired and red eyed man with a softer smile as he stood behind the other man his hands at his sides. "Y-you planned this?"

"Well duh." The blonde said and chuckled. "Virgo called us up in a frenzy last night, that woman is scary crazy when she's worried about you."

"Sting." She murmured then launched herself forwards, once again not Noticing Natsu's shock as she rushed past him as if not noticing him. "You two are so amazing!"

Sting wrapped his arms around her, his eyes locking with Natsu's black ones and he glared at him hatred in his eyes, hatred that Natsu returned full force with a baring of his teeth. If there was one thing that Sting and Natsu shared in common it was their sheer hatred of one another that was quite literally off the charts.

Pulling away Lucy turned and wrapped her arms around Rouge. "Gods I missed you two!" She chirped happily.

"And we you." Rogue murmured.

"Now my dear," Warrod said instantly gaining her attention and she turned towards him her eyebrows raised in question. "This is going to take some time, are you willing to wait for them all to be finished before we place them?"

Lucy nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! If you are willing to make them all I would gladly do anything!"

He chuckled. "Do not make open promises my dear, things like that can get you into trouble. But all that I ask is that around the time that we are going to be placing the finished products you remain away from the premises until everything is placed and ready for you to view."

Again she nodded hurriedly. "Deal!"

"Good," He chuckled again. "Now, I'll consult with my wood-smiths and we will get back to you on the rough estimate of how much this is going to cost."

"Don't worry about the price, Warrod." She said and shrugged when he arched a brow in question. "I've been saving up for a rainy day and I figured that this counted for at least a dozen of those so, spare no expense in the masterpieces that you and your team is going to create."

He smiled and walked forward, cupping her cheek gently he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You my dear are far to pure and innocent for your own good. You play at the hearts of those whom are heartless."

She blinked up at him in confusion. "Huh?"

He laughed softly then motioned towards her brothers. "I am assuming that they have much work to do and that they are here to collect you to take you off to approve of something."

"Yup." Sting said with a chuckle. "C'mon Lucy, we've already wasted several hours trying to coax this old geezer into accepting this massive task."

Lucy made a choking sound before she whipped around. "You apologize!" She growled, her cheeks tinging pink. "Warrod is the best wood worker in all of Ishgar!"

Sting stuck his tongue out at her. "Make me!" Cackling he pushed himself off the door frame and raced through the shop with Lucy hot on his tail.

Rogue sighed softly and shook his head, moving into the conference room to collect his sisters belongings. "We do appreciate you taking the time to make all of the pieces that my sister is asking for, we did not know that she would want this many."

"Your sister is an amazing young woman." Warrod said as he followed Rogue through his shop at a slower pace as they watched Lucy attempted to get her hands on Sting through the large front window. "She never hesitates to offer her aid to anyone whom needs it no matter if it hinders herself. She is far to naive for her own good, and yet she is incredibly brilliant all at once. She has gained quite the reputation throughout the city, let me reassure you that it is a good reputation, I have seen to that." He said and rested his hand on the younger man's shoulder. "But be warned, somehow she had been pulled into the much darker scenes of this city, I do not know how since I have been keeping a rather close eye on her but it has happened. I do not think that she knows this though, so I would like for you and your brother to look after her closely since I cannot. At least not without drawing more undo attention to her."

Rogue nodded slightly. "We appreciate you looking after her for us, Warrod. It has been far to long since we talked face to face."

"Do not make yourselves strangers now," Warrod said as they continued towards the door. "Your parent's were dear friends of mine and it has been far to quiet since you young ones ceased coming for the monthly dinners."

Rogue smiled and shook the older man's hand. "Agreed, take care Warrod."

"You as well Rogue, look after your brother he seems to be more a trouble maker then he was when he was younger." He said and turned back to move deeper into his shop, his smile fading as his expression flat-lined and he locked eyes with the pink haired Natsu where he leaned against the door frame to the conference room, his arms folded across his broad chest as he frowned at Warrod.

"She's different." He stated bluntly.

Warrod nodded. "She is the biological daughter of the late Jude and Layla Heartfilia."

"That's that title pipsqueak?" Natsu demanded shoving himself off the door frame surprise and intrigue filling his eyes.

"Yes," He said and folded his own arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "Why are you suddenly showing interest in this one particular woman? It has been years since she opened up shop next to the bar."

Natsu looked away and shrugged not entire sure himself as to the sudden peak of interest. "Haven't really run into her much, seen her passing on the street a time or two always with her nose shoved into a damn book."

"Perhaps that's because she is a bookshop owner." Warrod pointed out with a chuckle. "She is constantly reading new books to see if they are worth her time putting them on her shelves. Lucy is a very complex individual."

"Really?" Natsu snorted. "She seems pretty simple to me."

"No, that is only because you have not stopped to carry a conversation with her. She is easily distracted at times, friendly, loyal to those she trusts, incredibly intelligent, and yet incredibly stupid. All of this is mixed together and presented all at once when you carry a normal conversation with her."

"She wasn't like that just now." Natsu pointed out with a smirk. "She was simple just now."

"Because this was extremely important to her." He sighed and motioned for Natsu to follow him so they could continue their conversation in a much more private setting. "There are two sides to Lucy, her every day life and then her business life. The two are very distinct and different sides of Lucy that you have yet to encounter. And I do not want you to encounter them."

"Why the hell not?" Natsu demanded, turning his head to glare at Warrod when the older man stopped and turned to face him.

"Because, Natsu that girl if far to pure to be dragged into the lifestyle that you and I are currently buried in." He said and shook his head. "It is bad enough that her brothers are stained with this perpetual darkness. They, as well as her three guardians, fought hard to keep her from ever having to deal with the life that her parent's were trying desperately heart to emerge from for the sake of their daughter before they were killed. As it is now Lucy doesn't remember much of the life her guardians kept her from."

"That's why she doesn't remember me." Natsu said with a frown, not at all liking the notion that the blonde beauty had forgotten him.

"You did not remember her Natsu." Warrod pointed out dryly.

"Yea but I hardly remember anyone whose not in my day to day life. Besides I just didn't recognize her," Natsu retorted with a sneer. "It's been what? Seventeen years since I've seen her? She ain't the little brat that I remember her to be."

Warrod's eyes widened. "You remembered Lucy Heartfilia after all this time?" He demanded.

"Yea." Natsu snorted. "Why the hell wouldn't I? The little pipsqueak followed me everywhere and wanted to help me with everything that I did."

"But you yourself were only six years old when you two were introduced. You only knew her for a year before the death of her parents." Warrod said in a rush, horror filling him.

Natsu turned his head and grinned at Warrod, but it was nothing more then a challenging baring of his unnaturally sharp canines. "You can say that in the short time that I spent with her, Lucy Heartfilia branded herself onto my soul. And knowing that she forgot about me is insulting so now I'm gonna make her remember me at all costs." He chuckled as he turned and headed towards the front of the shop. "See ya later Warrod, I'll send the Ice Prick to see you later today."

Warrod stood there in silence. Natsu, whom never remembered anyone he didn't have constant interaction with for more then a month, had remembered a small shy child he had only spent one year with seventeen years ago. And not only that but when he spoke of her his voice softened, his glare gentled, and the sneers he gave turned into genuine smiles. It seemed that Lucy Heartfilia was caught in the sights of the Salamander and unless Warrod and the other's acted swiftly and carefully she was going to be swept into something that someone so pure as her should never be caught up in.


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay so what's the plan for the remodel?" Sting asked, leaning against the table that they had commandeered in Levy's cafe as he stared down at her with a bored expression.

Lucy looked up at him over the top of her glasses, her focus having been broken from the expense sheets she had been calculating, Warrod having emailed her a rough estimate of how much the pieces she had asked for would cost. It was clear that he had drastically cut his prices for each one, but they were still _extremely_ expensive. But with those, which she wasn't going to cut back on or ask for a lower price, and the money that she would need just to even think about starting the remodeling process, her budget was already strained. "Well, right now I'm trying to figure out how much jewel I can spend in each aspect of the remodel."

Sting shrugged as he continued to stare at her. "Well while you're doing that let me and Rogue see the plans, we know you have them so just hand them over. Or do you want me to go through your bag to find them."

Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes, reaching down she grabbed her messenger bag and rifled through it. "Here, detailed blueprints of what I want the shop to look like now." She said and passed the rolled up plans to her older brother whom excitedly bounced on his toes as he waited for the plans to touch his hand.

"Lucy you are one amazing little sister!" He chirped then rushed to another table. "Rogue get your emo ass over here!"

Rogue, sitting at the small breakfast counter, sighed and pushed himself off the stool and headed towards the slightly older man. "You are far to excited."

"She didn't let us remodel last time so excuse me for being excited to remodel our little sisters pride and joy bookshop." Sting retorted with a glare before turning his eyes back to the plans he spread out on the table, a look of glee spreading quickly until he nearly shone with it..

"Do they always act like this?" Levy asked softly giving the two a wary look as they leaned over the plans, taking a seat across from Lucy she placed a cup of steaming coffee in front of her before cradling her own in her hands.

Lucy sighed yet again and nodded, rubbing at her temples as he felt yet another migraine rear it's ugly head. "I'm afraid so, but you get used to it as time goes, well at least some of it you get used to. Though the migraines don't really fade with time like the irritation does. But they mean well so I guess it kinda makes up for their erratic and un-comprehensible behavior."

Levy shook her head in amazement. "I don't know how you dealt with them and your...guardians?...for so long, would have drove me crazy."

"Everyone says it's because I have the patience of a saint." Lucy said and gave her friend a confused look. "But I don't know what that means, their family, of course I'm going to put up with them."

"Oh Lucy," Levy said with a laugh. "Sometimes you can be so stupid."

Lucy frowned at her. "Well that's mean."

"You're right, I'm sorry." Levy agreed and reached out, put her hand on top of Lucy's. "I didn't mean it."

"I know," She said and gave her a smile. "By the way, one of the pieces I asked for was a hand crafted archway for that." She said and motioned to the now boarded up archway that was the connection between Lucy's bookshop and Levy's small cafe. "I hope that that's okay."

"Oh my god!" Levy breathed, excitement tinging her cheeks pink as her eyes widened in shock. "You got Warrod Seguen to design a archway for that!? All my customers are going to see that?!"

Lucy nodded slowly glancing from the doorway then back to Levy. "Um, yeah?"

"Holly cow Lucy that's amazing!" She gushed. "How did you manage it?"

"Because Lucy's parent's and Warrod were very good friends." A light bubbly voice said from the front door.

"I"m sorry but the cafe's closed until further notice." Levy said apologetically.

"Wait how do you know my name?" Lucy demanded with a frown, pushing herself up from her chair and turning to look at the woman, taking in her long white hair and large gentle blue eyes as well as her well endowed figure as she stood just inside the doorway to the cafe.

"Oh, that's because I'm the bartender at Fairy Tail, Mirjane but you can call me Mira." She said as she moved deeper into the shop. "Sorry for the intrusion but the owner of the bar is going to stop by and he wanted to give his apologies to you Lucy. He should be here any minute would you mind coming to the bar with me to await his arrival?"

Lucy stared at her. "I, um, can my brothers come?"

"Oh certainly!" Mira said and clapped her hands. "The more the merrier."

Lucy turned her head and blinked at the open hostility in both of her brother's faces. Slowly she turned and looked at Levy whom had just as shocked an expression on her face as Lucy did as she too stared at the men. "Levy wanna come?" She asked, her eyes pleading as the other woman's eyes jumped to her.

"S-sure." Levy said and pushed herself up and rushed to the register counter to grab her keys. "L-lets go."

Lucy stood and watched as her brothers slowly and menacingly pushed themselves up onto their feet, murmuring to each other as Rogue pulled his phone from his pocket. "You don't need to involve those three." She said sternly as she saw Sting's mouth form Virgo's name.

Sting blinked in shock as he turned his head and stared at her as she put her hands on her hips. "What?"

"You heard me." She said and shook her head. "You two don't think that I can handle myself, just for that you two can stay here, Levy and I will be back when we're done talking with the bar owner."

"Lucy." Rogue said and moved to place his hand on her shoulder. "You don't-"

"Rogue, I'm not going to argue with you." She said and turned her glare towards him, silencing him with one look. "You two, in fact you all seem to think that I'm still that defenseless four year old that I was when mother and father died. Well I hate to break it to you I'm not, and I haven't been for a long time. So stay here and look over those plans, take notes, or do whatever you want."

"No, we're coming." Sting said and crossed his arms. "We aren't going to let you go there by yourself."

"First of all I'm not going alone, Levy's going with me." She said motioning towards her firend. "Second of all, if you even think about attempting to come with us I'm kicking you out of my house for the duration that the remodel is going to take and if you think that I'm joking you don't know me as well as you think."

They stared at her in shock.

"You're serious." Rogue murmured then growled in frustration.

She nodded. "Dead serious, now I apologize for my brothers' rudeness. Shall we get going?" She prompted turning towards the white haired beauty.

Mira smiled at her and pushed open the cafe door. "Certainly, it's quite all right. Their just protective of you since you're their younger sister, that's understandable."

Lucy sighed as she and Levy followed her out onto the sidewalk and towards the bar. She looked at the ruins of her shop and her heart panged as the pungent smell of smoke filled her nostrils, it had been two weeks after the fire and yet it still felt like yesterday when she had come to sift through the ruins to see if anything at all had survived the blaze or was at least salvageable. But nothing had, it had all been burned almost past the point of recognition. Hell if she hadn't known where everything was supposed to be she wouldn't have known what any of it was point the past that it was something that was once a part of her beautiful shop. That day had been by far the hardest for her yet, all of the memories that she had made there had filled her thoughts each time she would turn her head and look at another area.

Taking a deep, calming breath she strode past her shop and gave Mira a grateful smile when she held open the door and motioned Lucy and Levy through it. Hesitantly both girls strode through the doorway, sticking close to one another, both of them were more bookworms then bar goers. After all this would mark the first ever time that Lucy had ever gone into a bar, not including restaurants that had bars in them since most of those establishments had their bar semi-separate from the dinging area and it didn't count as a bar to be quite honest.

"Don't worry," Mira said softly, reassuring both the women. "Though we're still open the crowds not going to get to rowdy until later today."

"That obvious we don't go to bars much?" Lucy asked with a nervous laugh as Levy clutched her shirt with one hand, her eyes jumping aorund the palce as if she were terrified.

"Just a little bit." Mira said and giggled. "It's quite cute actually, you two look so out of place!" Lucy's cheeks flamed red as she followed Mira towards the bar and slid onto one of the stools, Levy sitting next to her and scooting her stool closer. "Can I get you two something to drink while you wait?'

"Um, I'll have water." Lucy said and turned to Levy who murmured just loud enough for Lucy to hear. "She'll have water to."

"Okay, two waters coming up!" Mira said happily. "Do you guys want something to eat? You look as if you haven't eaten in days."

Levy shrugged, looking towards Lucy to make the decision.

"Um. what do you have?" Lucy asked.

"We have burgers, nachos, pastas, pizzas, soups, and salads." Mira said. "Pick one and I'll tell you what we have for that selection."

"Whatever you're having is good for me too." Levy murmured, nervously scanning the bar.

Lucy sighed again, her nervousness being replaced with slight irritation. She absolutely hated being made to make all the decisions for things that didn't really matter to her. "Do you have bacon cheeseburgers?" She asked, looking up at Mira while rubbing at her temple as if she had a headache.

"Of course, would you like fries with them?" She prompted.

"Please." She said nodding.

"Sure thing!" Mira said and turned heading towards a door that Lucy only assumed would be the kitchen. "They'll be out in just a little while."

"Thank you!" Lucy called after her then sighed yet again and turned towards Levy. "Why are you just as nervous as I am?" She demanded in a hiss glaring at her friend. "You're supposed to be my support not need support from me!"

"This is my first time in a bar Lucy!" Levy hissed back. "I've always heard that this bar is renowned for it's brawls. I don't want to be here when one of them breaks out!"

"There ain't gonna be any brawls tonight." Someone snarled from behind them and both girls let out choked screams as they jerked around to stare up at Natsu as he glared down at them. "Boss man is coming so everyone's going to be on their best behavior." He paused as she took a step closer and loomed over Lucy as she stared up at him with wide eyes, color blanching from his face. "What are you doing here blondie?" He demanded.

"I, uh...Mira...food...Levy!" she squeaked, looking at her friend with wide eyes who let out a choked squeak when Natsu turned his head to glare at her as if seeking an answer.

Levy shook her head wildly and pointed back towards Lucy.

Natsu growled in the back of his throat and moved closer to Lucy, crowding her against the bar. "Look, I'm not meaning to come across as threatening or anything, just wanna know what brought you over here."

"Well sure got a funny way of showing it Flame Brain." Another man with black hair said as he pulled out another stool and sat in it farther down the bar. "Caging someone whose already pretty terrified in like that with the face your making, yea that's sure gonna get her to talk in no time."

"What the hell you talking about Ice Princess?" Natsu retorted a frown mixing with his glare.

"What Gray means, Natsu," Mira said reappearing and placing waters in front of Lucy and Levy. "Is that these two girls are already nervous about being in here and you're being all pushy and threatening since their to nervous to speak. And as for why they're here, the boss wants to talk to Lucy since it was here shop that was destroyed because of the fire in the bar."

"Ah." Natsu said with a nod and backed off, moving to claim the stool next to Lucy, watching her out of the corner of how eye accepting the mug of ale that Mira slid towards him.

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief as she turned around and picked up her water, taking a sip of it as if to hopefully calm her nerves with the action. She nearly jumped out of her skin when her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket and she scrambled for it, nearly tumbling off her stool in her haste, if not to Natsu's stabilizing hand on her arm she might just have. Murmuring a quick thank you to him she input her pass-code and opened the text, noting that it was from her brother.

 **Sting:** Lucy are you okay?!

Sighing as her eye twitched she quickly sent a response reassuring him that both she and Levy were just fine, in fact they were going to eat a burger while they waited. Setting the phone down she turned towards Levy then growled when her phone went off not a second later.

 **Sting:** Do we need to come get you?! They're not doing anything threatening to you are they?! God help them if they are?!

This time Lucy let out a small growl as she hunched over her phone. She was at her wits end with her idiotic brother, he had never thought that she could ever take care of herself, always doing things for her even when she was entirely capable of doing it herself. Slamming her phone down on the bar Lucy dropped her head and counted to twenty in a vain attempt to gather her patience. She took deep soothing breaths, closing her eyes and relaxing her tensed muscles. And it worked.

Until her phone vibrated again.

Letting out a snarl she grabbed the phone and lifted her arm back as if she were going to throw the phone at the wall.

"Let me." Natsu said suddenly as he snagged the phone from her fingers and deftly unlocked it having seen her pass-code. "Smile." He said leaning over so his face was right next to hers and she noticed that her phone was at the selfie camera. Blinking she smiled, hating that she looked so stunned in the picture as Natsu himself smiled right before he took the picture. "Send this to him." He told her offering the phone back to her.

Lucy looked up at him in confusion. "Huh?"

He sighed and gave her an exasperated look. "He doesn't believe you that you're fine. If you send him that then there's no way that he can dispute that any harm is coming to you."

She stared at him before she took the phone. "Why?"

"Huh?" He prompted after taking a sip of his ale.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked motioning towards the phone.

Natsu shrugged. "You were getting irritating, plus I don't want anymore damage to come to the bar since the boss is coming in today, and you were about ready to launch your phone into the wall."

"Oh." She said softly in embarrassment, turning she quickly sent the photo to Sting then set it quietly on the bar, staring at her hands silently as he cheeks flamed. "Sorry."

"Huh?"

"S-sorry for being such a bother." She said louder, still not looking at him. "I try not to be a both-"

"I didn't say that." He rebuked gently, cutting her off and nudged her gently with his elbow. Lucy looked up at him with wide eyes. "You ain't a bother, I just didn't want to have to explain why there was a hole in the wall."

"There wouldn't have been a hole in the wall." Lucy said with a snort, forgetting her embarrassment. "I'm not that strong."

"With the way you're arm was back and the rage on your face there sure as shit would have been a hole." Natsu argued with a smile, for once his signature glare gone from his face and his eyes laughing down at her as she stared up at him.

"Nah-uh!" She said and shook her head and pointed towards the wall in front of them. "The majority of this place was made with quebracho wood which just so happens to be the number one strongest wood in the entire world. It's typically refereed to as the "axe breaker" and is among one of the strongest, hardest, and heaviest woods in the world, it's also extremely hard to work with and isn't found all that often in furniture or building material due to it's high cutting resistance. It's mainly used for railroad ties and heavy construction material even though it's a very beautiful wood though it is known to sometimes cause respiratory irritation and nausea if it's not properly sealed." Instantly Lucy froze as she realized that she had just spouted knowledge that most people wouldn't know off the top of their head. Slowly she turned her head and looked up at Natsu who was staring at her in surprise.

"You know this off the top of your head?" He prompted amazement in his voice.

Instantly her cheeks heated. "Well, I've read a lot of books since I like to know what I keep stocked in my shop, and what I read tends to stay in my head since I have a photographic memory most of the time."

"Wow." He murmured and gave her a soft, genuinely interested smile. "What else do you know about the woods in here?"

"Well, you have the sawtooth oak wood as your benches and doors and some chairs, there's currently sixty different oak tree species known to date, your stools and most of the chairs are cherry tree wood which tend to be a very beautifully finished wood pieces. Those two aren't exactly the strongest of woods but they do make very pleasing accents to any type of room. Though I did notice that all of your tables are quebracho wood." She said and glanced at him to see that he was indeed still watching her with an interested smile playing at the corner of his lips.

"You're showing off Lucy." Levy said with a soft chuckle.

Lucy gasped, having forgotten that her friend was there with her, she stared down at her water in embarrassment. "I, uh, well..."

"I thought that was really interesting." Natsu said softly, turning back to stared down into his ale. "I've always just thought hat it was just a sturdy wood. I'm happy that I know that it's the worlds strongest wood now." He said and rapped his knuckles against the bar as he winked at Lucy.

She blushed and looked down at her water, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Y-your welcome."

"Alright you three!" Mira chimed in as she passed out three heaping plates. "Here's your girls' hamburgers, and Natsu here's yours. I know you're hungry since you most likely haven't eaten so I took the liberty of having your special made for you."

"Ah you're a lifesaver!" He growled and pulled the plate closer to him and instantly dug in.

Lucy smiled up at Mira. "Thank you."

"No problem Lucy," She said and turned away before quickly turning back. "And it's on the house for you two so you don't need to worry about the bill."

She stare at the white haired beauty in surprise before she shrugged slightly and turned back to her meal.

* * *

Lucy was laughing at something that Mira had told her to which she and Natsu were currently in a debate about, she'd pulled her legs up so she was sitting with her legs crisscrossed on the stool so she could watch more comfortably. She'd been there already for nearly two hours and she was currently having a blast talking with both Mira and Natsu. It was clear that he was a much...rougher individual then she would ever be, but there was something about the way that he spoke to her, the way that he looked at her and kept all the men away from her with just one withering look. There was no way about it he was slightly protective of her, Lucy wondered if it was simply because she was very obviously out of her element here, or if it was because of something much more...personal. Though he still frightened her at times with his roughness and his crass attitude.

"Well, well, well look at what the cat dragged in!" A deep voice boomed from the doorway of the bar. Lucy groaned as she instantly recognized the voice, it just so happened to be the one person that she absolutely didn't want to run into again in all of her life. "Lucy sweetie how the hell you been?!" He cheered from across the bar.

Lucy sighed and closed her eyes in dread as she knew what was bound to happen regardless of what she did. "I've been good, how bout yourself Gildarts?"

"Much better now that I know you're just fine, you've grown up a lot since the last time I saw you haven't you?" He teased moving towards her. "Why don't you turn around and show me those knockers you got."

Lucy sighed again as her eye twitched. "Look, I get enough sexual harassment from your daughter as it is, lets just leave it at that."

"Ah don't bring Cana into this, I know she works for you but that don't mean a thing." He chastised as he stopped behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder as if to pulled her around.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh and the sudden disappearance of his hand from her shoulder had Lucy's head jerking up and she looked over at Natsu who was suddenly standing right next to her as if to partially protect her from the unwanted touch. "Don't touch her." He snarled glaring at the older man.

Gildarts' black eyes bore into Natsu's, surprise in their dark depths. "Oh? And why shouldn't I?" He challenged.

Lucy watched in horror as Natsu's eyes narrowed and he clenched his teeth. "Because she's off limits." He growled through his clenched teeth.

Slowly realization mixed with the surprise and Gildarts smiled as he lifted his hand so his palm was up in surrender. "Well, looks like little Natsu's growing up finally."

Lucy looked from one to the other then noticed that the entire bar had gone deathly silent as they all seemed to await the outcome of Natsu's challenge. It was then that she realized that Gildarts was the owner of this establishment. Her head whipping around she pinned the older man with a narrow eyed look. "You own this bar?" She demanded.

"Yup." The older man said with a grin as he ran his fingers through his shoulder length reddish brown hair to pull it out of his face as he backed up until he could lean against a table."Why do you ask?"

Growling Lucy grabbed her water cup and threw it at him to his surprise. "You jerk! You perverted jerk!" She shouted as she grabbed more things off the bar and threw it at his head though he easily dodged each item including a steak knife that Levy attempted to grab from her before she could throw it. "I bet set that fire just so you could get close to Cana and me just so you could hug her and to grope me! You pervert!"

"I was across the country when I got the call that there had been a fire!" He retorted with a snort, easily knocking a bottle of ketchup aside so it crashed into the floor instead of his head. "Though that's a great idea. Why the hell didn't I think of that?!" he cried with a cheek splitting grin.

At that point Lucy lost it and with a roar she launched herself from her stool to hard-charge the much larger man.

"Easy there!" Natsu growled as he easily caught her and wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet, instantaneously startling her out of her rage.

"Eeeh!" She shrieked her feet kicking as she clutched at his arm as he settled her in his lap as he sat back on his stool. "Put me down!"

"Are you calm now?" He demanded as he wrapped his other arm around her waist.

"Yes!" She squeaked her cheeks going red. "My temper is slow to come and quick to go."

"Not when it comes to me." Gildarts pointed out with a chuckle. "I've always had a talent for setting off her temper ever since she was a little girl."

Lucy growled and shot him a look.

"See you are not calmed down, I think I'm just going to hold you here until I'm sure that you're calmed down." Natsu grunted as he settled onto the stool with his back against the bar.

Lucy turned her head and narrowed her eyes at Levy. "You're no help at all!" She growled in exasperation as she tried to pry Natsu's arms off of her.

Levy shrugged as she folded her arms. "I tried to stop you but you wouldn't listen to reason, you never do when Gildarts shows up unannounced. You always seem to fly into a rage, Cana just wasn't here to keep you from attacking this time."

Lucy slumped back against Natsu, not realizing that she wast still in his lap as she wrapped her arms around her chest as she shuddered. "She always takes that as an opportunity to grope me. Seriously I think she enjoys it when he comes to visit just for that."

"Um, Lucy you're getting a little to comfortable don't you think?" Mira prompted in amusement as she giggled softly.

"Huh?" Lucy murmured and turned to look at Mira then froze mid-turn as she realized that she was still being held captive by a certain pink haired man. Slowly she looked up into Natsu's face, his signature glare on his face before it slowly melted away and he slowly grinned down at her.

"Hey. Comfortable?" He asked with a smirk before he winked.

Lucy stared at him in shock before she shrieked and started to struggle in earnest, shoving at his face with one hand while she tried to pry his arms off of her as she wiggled and kicked her legs. "Let go! Let go! _Let go!_ " She shrieked.


	4. Chapter 4

Pushing open the door to Levy's cafe Lucy glared at her brothers both of whom scrambled to their feet the second the door chimed signalizing someone opening the door. It had taken at least two more hours to get the conversation with Gildarts out of the way since he had insisted that he talk to Mira about the damages to the bar first, as well as have something to drink and eat as well. It had been one of the longest two hours of her day since he had flirted more then he had gone over anything that really mattered. And then he had still beaten around the bush until she had threatened to leave regardless of what he had to say.

"Lucy what happened?" Sting demanded taking a step towards her until she narrowed her eyes at him, shocking him.

"Did you know the owner was Gildarts Clive?" She demand.

"Uh, Rogue you take this one." Sting murmured and backed away with a wary look in his eyes.

Rogue sighed and shot his brother a glare before he softened his eyes and turned his full attention to her. "Lucy, understand something-"

"No," She cut him off with a swipe of her hand. "You be honest with me right now, did you or did you not know that he was the owner and you didn't warn me."

"We knew." He said after a hestitant moment. "Lucy, we didn't tell you because most of the time he has his assistant stand in for him."

"And who the hell would that be?" She snarled as she stomped over to the table that had all her expense papers spread out on it.

"This scary as hell woman whom you should be grateful that you obviously didn't meet cause you would have run in the opposite direction." Sting said then tensed as he realized what he had just said. Both of them exchanged a look before they stared at her and waited for the inevitable.

Lucy froze then slowly straightened and turned to stare at the two men whom regarded her with closed expressions. "That's what you wanted." She murmured softly in disbelief. "You wanted me to meet this scary lady and come running back to you two like a scared little girl so you guys could pat me on top of the head and tell me everything was all right and that you two would handle everything."

Rogue held up his hands pacifyingly. "Lucy-"

"No!" She shouted and slammed her hands down onto the table, completely shocking the two of them, as tears slowly welled up and she shook her head where she had it bowed. "I'm sick and tired of always being treated like I'm weak. I'm so sick of being told half truths because you guys don't think I need to know what's really going on. I'm sick of always being patted on the head and set aside even though it's _my life_." Shaking her head Lucy grabbed her messenger bag, ignoring the papers that she had on the table. "I won't be home until late, don't bother waiting up."

With that she rushed from the shop, her head down as the tears she desperately tried to hold back slowly rolled down her cheeks in thick rivulets. It wasn't often that the three of them got into fights, but it was very clear that they always somehow managed to win each and every one of them without fail since she almost always ran off during the middle of them. She didn't leave because she was mad that she wasn't going to win, she ran because she was afraid that she was going to lose her temper and say something that she was truly going to regret later on. After all she treasured her brothers more then she did getting her point across to the two thick skull'd idiots.

Hugging the strap of her messenger bag closer to her Lucy hurried down the sidewalk and past the front of the bar, wiping the back of one hand across her cheeks as she walked. She'd made it nearly about a block and a half from her shop before someone's arm shot out in front of her, halting her escape from her brothers. Jerking to a halt Lucy turned her head and blinked up at Natsu through her tears.

"N-Natsu?" She prompted in confusion as to why he was suddenly in front of her.

"Who the hell made you cry?" He demanded on a snarl, his eyes narrowing.

She shook her head looking away as she took a deep breath hoping to calm herself. "M-my brothers a-and I got i-into an a-argument. Don't w-worry about i-it."

"You're crying." He pointed out and moved closer, grabbing hold of her upper arms as if to keep her from escaping. "Why the hell would I not worry about it when you're in tears?"

"Because you d-don't know m-me." She pointed out dryly and shrugged still not looking him in the face.

"You know what Gildarts ordered, I'm to work with you on everything." He said and pulled her slightly closer before he tipped her chin up with one hand and gave her a soft smile. "That means I should get to know you since we're going to be spending so much time together."

"Yes but that's in regards to my shop." She denied and shook her head.

"But what's it going to hurt spending some time with me when it's not in regards to your shop?" He prompted then grinned as he reached down and threw her over his shoulder, grabbing her messenger bag as it hit the ground and taking off at a smooth run with her still over his shoulder. All of this done within the blink of an eye. "Consider yourself kidnapped until further notice!" He cackled.

"Natsu put me down!" She shrieked, her eyes wide as she her hands fumbled at the back of his black blazer to try and keep herself from smacking into his back to much.

"Nope," He said keeping a tight hold on her. "Not until we get where we're going."

"Then where are we going?" She asked her heart threatening to climb up her throat with her anxiety. She'd never been left alone with someone quiet like Natsu and she wasn't sure if she was ready to be alone with him yet. "Natsu where are you taking me?" She demanded when he didn't answer her.

"That's a surprise." He said as he rounded a corner and raced across the street, ignoring the car that blared it's horn at them.

"What?!" She shrieked and smacked his back. "Tell me right now where you're taking me!"

"No." He chuckled and jostled her slightly making her yelp. "Wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you now would it?"

Smacking his back as she kicked her legs Lucy gritted her teeth in frustration. "I don't care-"

"Settle down!" He snarled in irritation when she nearly slipped off his shoulder. "I will carry you under my arm if you keep this up!"

Automatically Lucy ceased her struggles and her hands tightened in his jacket as she stared at the ground, silently taking note of what part of town that they were in in case she was able to escape. She'd always hated being yelled at, it wasn't that she couldn't take it because growing up with her brothers she was constantly yelled at by Sting since his temper was a hair trigger, it was just she didn't like it when she was the focus of peoples irritation or anger. Especially when she felt that it wasn't her fault.

Natsu sighed softly as he slowed his pace and Lucy craned her head to see a beautifully built two story house looming up in front of them and she blinked at it though she didn't say anything. Striding up onto the porch he dug into his pockets. "Watch you're head." He growled as he pushed open the large redwood door and strode through it and into a spacious hallway, kicking the door shut once they were inside. Slowly he lowered her to the floor and gently help onto her upper arms.

Lucy kept her face averted from him, annoyed at the entire situation she was currently in. It seemed that no matter what she said or did everyone whom was bigger or stronger then her would always treat her as if her opinion didn't at all matter. "Let go." She murmured softly and tried to shrug his hands off of her.

"Not until you look at me." He growled and waited.

Lucy sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat she turned her head and tilted it back to look up at him, her eyes locking with his.

Slowly his glare faded and he smiled down at her. "There you are, thought I lost you in all that pouting." He teased softly, surprising her with this very shocking gentle side of him. "Go sit down," He said and nodded towards the sofas and armchairs in a room directly off the hallway. "I'll bring us something to drink." With that said he let go of her and moved around her, heading down the hall and disappearing into another room that she assumed was the kitchen.

Lucy stood there in shock then slowly turned her head and noticed her messenger bag sitting on a side table beside the door. The door, her escape, he had let it unlocked and her unsupervised. Shooting a look down the hall Lucy tensed to move when she jumped as Natsu called out from the kitchen.

"If you run I will chase you and you won't like it when I catch you. And I always catch my prey." He threatened the honesty ringing in his voice.

Lucy froze for a second before grabbing her bag and hesitantly moved into the living room and looked around, taking in the wall mounted flat screen TV as well as the countless rows of DVD stands filled with both movies and games. Slowly lowering herself onto the couch stationed directly across from the TV Lucy toed off her Toms and pulled her feet up and hugged them to her chest as she stared at the intricately carved coffee table in front of her. It was clear that Natsu was either well off financially or he was really close to Warrod because upon a quick inspection from her seat the majority of the furniture in this room was pieces that had been constructed by either Warrod or his wood-smiths. Leaning forward Lucy ran her fingers gently across the top of the table admiringly.

"You like?" Natsu prompted from the doorway, two glassed of amber colored liquid held in his hands.

She nodded slightly. "Warrod's pieces are absolutely beautiful."

"You can tell that this was made by Warrod?" He asked impressed that she could notice that while arching a brow.

She nodded and accepted the glass from him. "Either him or one of his smiths, but yea you I can tell that it was made by them because no other wood-smith pours their heart into every ounce of the piece that their working. The wood just has this sort of...feeling to it when you look at it, it's hard to explain."

He stared at her before he slowly nodded. "Yea, you're right." He took a small sip if his drink as he sat next to her on the couch.

"Apple juice?" She asked softly, looking into her glass.

"Uh, something a little stronger then juice." He said in amusement as he watched Lucy bring the glass up to her nose and take a small sniff. Instantly her nose scrunched up and she looked over at him. "You looked like you needed a drink. Besides you grew up drinking wine."

"Wine is a lot different then hard alcohol." She retorted before slowly taking a small, tentative sip. Lucy instantly started coughing the second she swallowed the fiery liquid. tears springing to her eyes as her throat nearly caught fire. She had never really been one for any type of alcoholic beverages, which is why she had wanted Loki and the others to take over the winery. Slowly her coughing ceased and she settled back against the couch again. "Why?" She asked gently, staring up at the ceiling.

"Huh?" He prompted, frowning in confusion as he took another sip.

"Why did you bring me here?" She reiterated then held up a finger as if to silence him. "And don't say it's because I was crying or that it would be a great time to get to know me because that wasn't it."

"Those weren't lies, but they were half-truths." He said with a chuckle. Natsu sat there for a moment as if debating telling her why he brought her to his home, taking a deep breath he decided to go out on a limb. "Would you believe me if I told you I like you?"

Lucy's head whipped around in surprise before her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Don't joke about that. Don't say you like me if you're just joking. It's cruel."

"I'm not." He said completely serious. "I'm not lying. I'm not joking with you, Lucy."

"Why?" She asked in a small voice, fear and shock in her eyes.

Natsu sighed and looked away. "You treat me different then any other woman that I've met."

"How do all the other women treat you?" She asked, a small part of her not wanting to know how he was treated if her treatment of him was so noticeable.

Natsu sighed, frowning he ran a hand through his hair, tousling it even more then it already was. "They all treat me as if I'm just someone to fuck becasue of all of my connections. Without fail every single woman will try and weasel their way into my bed and then turn around the next day and ask for favors."

She stared at him silently for a minuet. "How do I treat you? How am I different then everyone else?" It wasn't that she didn't already know how she treated him, she just wanted to see what his thoughts of it were because she was just treating him like he was another person.

Natsu rested his head against the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling. "You treat me as if I'm just another person that you've met, someone whom you're supposed to work with, someone who you can get to know. I don't have to hide who I am around you, I can laugh and smile with you and not worry that you have a secret motive for trying to make me like you. I can bring you home and not have to keep a constant eye on you to make sure that you don't try and rifle through my shit trying to find something that you can blackmail me for. You're sincere and honest to the point it makes my stomach knot up in excitement at what you could possibly say next because you're so innocent it's adorable. You don't say things just to say them and hear your own voice, you don't make yourself laugh or do this bullshit fake giggle that gets on my nerves whenever I say something you think I mean to be funny. You've never once thrown yourself at me and begged to spend some time with me just you and me. You care about others before yourself. And most importantly you don't want Gildarts touching you, you don't try and throw yourself at him, hell you nearly _attacked_ him."

Lucy blushed at the reminder that she did very nearly attack the older man. "So that's why you...like me?"

"Yea." He murmured then turned his head, still resting it against the couch to look at her. "That's why I like you. You're pretty impressive aren't you?"

Her eyes widened in embarrassment before she raised the glass to her lips and took a large gulp, instantly she started to cough as it burned down her throat.

"Not the reaction that I was going for but it'll do." He chuckled in amusement and reached out and patted the top of her head. "Don't worry I'm not going to pressure you into anything. I've been talking to Warrod and Cana since I ran into you in Warrod's shop. Between the two of them I've learned pretty much nothing about you besides you've never really shown an interest in men, so I'm not gonna try and rush you. Lets start out as friends okay? See where everything goes from there. Sound good?"

She stared at him incredulously. "You want me to be your friend knowing everything that you just told me?" She demanded.

He arched a brow at her. "Would you rather just jump straight into a relationship with me? I'm fine with either but I was just trying to think more about your comfort level." He scratched the back of his neck and shrugged. "Never really thought all that much about relationships so I was just kinda trying to feel it out as I went."

Her cheeks flooded with color and she chugged the rest of her drink to Natsu's shock before she turned to stared at him after she'd finished coughing. "I've never, _ever_ been in a relationship. I don't think that I could ever be you're friend. Not because of who you are, you seem like a nice person, a bit rough around the edges and very crass, but I'm not trying to sound rude or anything, but knowing what you just told me now? No, I could never be able to look past that, but I also can't be in a relationship with you because I don't even know anything about you. I've only spent about a day in you're company and most of that was with people around me and you were being all glares and snarls most of the time. I'm not going to just jump into a relationship with someone whom I don't know, and I know my brothers are going to pitch a fit when they found out that I just came over to your house, let alone all the things that you've told me. Which I'm not at all going to tell them and you better not as well." She paused and turned so she was staring at the coffee table, taking a deep breath Lucy closed her eyes as if not looking at him would give her some courage to say what she wanted to say. "I'm awkward in these situations, I tend to say things that I honestly shouldn't, and I ramble-which is what I'm doing now-but if you give me the chance I'll eventually work my way around to what I'm trying to say."

"Okay." He murmured, turning slightly so he was in a much more comfortable position to watch her as her face reddened. "Go ahead, I'm all ears."

Lucy gave a nod, her eyes still tightly closed. "Okay, what I'm trying to say is that you've really caught me off guard, I never ever thought that someone would come out so bluntly and tell me that they liked me. And then to tell me everything that made you like me, I know I asked you, but I wasn't expecting you to go into such detail without my needing to push. To be honest that scared me a little. It's not that I find you scary, well I do a little because you're so intimidating, but that's beside the point I'm getting off topic. What I'm trying to say is that I'm nowhere near ready for a relationship of the caliber that you're asking, but I'm willing to do as you suggested and get to know you first before committing to anything. I just don't want my brothers to find out because they'll cause trouble for both of us and right now I can't handle that plus worrying about my shop." Letting out a huff of air Lucy opened her eyes and turned to look at him. "Did any of that make any sense to you?"

Natsu slowly smiled at her and nodded. "You're willing to get to know me before you make the decision to date me or not. You don't want your brothers to know because they'll cause trouble. I scare you a little because of my personality, which is okay I can work on that. You've never been in a relationship so you're scared a little which is okay we'll take everything step by step. And lastly I shocked the hell out of you with my honest approach." He paused and arched a brow. "That sound about right?"

She stared at him silently before she nodded. "Yes."

* * *

Natsu sighed and smiled slightly down at Lucy as she lay with her head cushioned on his thigh, she'd fallen asleep nearly an two hours ago but he hadn't had the heart to wake her after the movie had ended so he'd simply started another one. Glancing at the clock hanging on the wall he sighed and slowly slid out from underneath her head before slowly gathering her into his arms, freezing when she murmured and shifted slightly in her sleep. Letting out a sigh of relief he straightened and turned heading towards the stairs, a slow grin gracing his lips as he realized that he would have Lucy in his bed, right next to him.

Reaching his door Natsu pushed it open and strode in, thankful that his maid had decided to finally clean his room so it wasn't it's normal pig sty mess that he normally left it in. Gently settling her onto the unmade bed Natsu carefully pulled the blankets over her, grateful that she was wearing leggings instead of jeans that he would have to try and get her out of without waking her. Slowly straightening he stared down at her as she snuggled into the bed and rolled onto her side with a soft sigh. Forcing himself to turn and leave the room Natsu pulled the door closed until there was a crack left before he turned and headed silently down the hall and down the stairs pulling out his phone and dialing the only person whom would be awake at this hour.

Pressing the phone to his ear as he moved into his kitchen Natsu chewed on his thumb in thought.

"What are you still doing up at this hour?" Warrod asked with a chuckle.

"She's in my bed." Natsu blurted before he could stop himself.

"Whose in your bed and why are you telling me?" Warrod prompted with a laugh.

"Lucy is."

The sudden silence on the other end of the phone had Natsu himself holding his breath. "By Lucy do you mean Lucy Heartfilia?"

"Yes."

"Do tell why the one girl that I warned you to stay away from is in your bed?"

Natsu leaned back against his sink so he could watch the top of the sitars in case Lucy woke up and wandered down them. "She got into it with her brothers when I was still at the bar, saw her crying and went after her. Brought her home then we started talking." He paused then took a deep breath. "I told her I liked her and one thing let to another and we've decided that we're going to get to know one another before she decides on anything. We were watching movies and she fell asleep and I decided to just let her sleep since she's had a very long few weeks. So that's why she's in my bed."

"But do tell why you blatantly ignored my warning."

Natsu froze at the shocking anger that was very clear in Warrod's deep voice. "She's what Mavis was to Zeref." He said softly by way of explanation.

Warrod inhaled sharply at the blunt confession. "When did you figure this out?" He demanded softly after a moment.

"Not to long ago, when we were sitting on my couch talking." Natsu said and shook his head a smile on his lips. "You were right, Warrod, this girl is special. She's so funny, so sweet, so innocent, so dumb at times."

Warrod snorted. "That sounds exactly like her."

"What are we going to do?" He asked softly after a minuet. "The second it gets out that I'm getting closer to her then I have to any other girl she's going to become a target."

"We'll have to tell her soon." The older man sighed.

"Not yet, though." Natsu said hastily. "She's already slightly scared of me as it is, I don't want to terrify her when I'm just starting to let her get to know me."

"She's scared of you?" Warrod prompted with a snort. "How do you know that?"

"She told me quite bluntly." He said with a chuckle. "What'd she say? She's not _scared_ of me she's just _slightly_ scared of me because of my personality and how I act."

"Gods that girl is so dumb sometimes." Warrod sighed. "We can figure this out tomorrow, for now get some rest. And gods forbid do _not_ do anything!"

"Yea, yea, yea I already promised her we would take things extremely slow." Natsu retorted. "G'night Warrod, speak ta ya tomorrow I'm assuming."

"Good night Natsu." Warrod said then disconnected the call.

Sliding the phone back into his pocket Natsu rested against the counter for a moment longer before he grinned and pushed off and turned to prep the coffee pot for tomorrow, hurrying to his fridge he pulled it open then grimaced at it's barren contents. Clearly his maid hadn't been happy with him about his room since she hadn't restocked his fridge like he'd asked in his note. Sighing he pulled open his freezer and pulled out a thick package of bacon and placed it into the fridge to thaw, making a note on the whiteboard to go shopping since the maid wouldn't be back for another week. Pausing to make sure that there was nothing else he needed to pull out from his freezer he nodded and turned, exiting the kitchen he headed for the sitars, taking them two at a time as he hurried back to his bedroom, switching off the lights as he went.

Quietly closing the door Natsu turned and stared at Lucy curled up in his bed, the moonlight washing over her and making her even more beautiful then she already was. He stood there for a moment just staring at her shocked at how much one small woman could make such a big impact on him in such a short amount of time that he'd known her. Reaching back he pulled his shirt up over his head and tossed it aside as he silently padded to his walk in closet and grabbed a pair of sweats, no way in hell was he going to sleep in his birthday suit like he normally did, at least not until he and Lucy had reached that level of their impending relationship. Slowly he strode to the bed and carefully climbed onto it, resting his chin on his elbow so he could stare down at her as she slept, smiling possessively at the way her lips parted softly in her sleep. She was stunning both on the outside and the inside. There was something about her that drew out the tender side of him that he'd pushed so far down that he truthfully thought that would never see the light of day again. But now he was genuinely smiling down at her, he was laughing with her, and he wasn't glaring as much as he normally would have been. All of it was shocking to him, in a way that made him want to lock her up in his room and never let her out for fear of something happening to her.

Growling softly to himself he settled down and on top of the covers and scooted closer to her, wrapping one arm around her while he slide the other under her head as he buried his nose in her hair and closed his eyes. Tomorrow would be a new day, and he'd greet it wrapped around Lucy.


	5. Chapter 5

Lucy groaned as the sunlight slowly roused her from her sleep, she was roasting underneath her blankets. Slowly cracking her eyes she frowned as her vision was filled with pink, she frowned she knew that she didn't own any bedding that was pink of any shades since she didn't really like the color all that much. It was then that the memories of last night cascaded through her head like a waterfall and her eyes snapped open. She stared at the top of Natsu's head as his forehead rested against her chest, they were both laying on their sides with Natsu wrapped around her like a spider-monkey, though she did notice that he was laying on top of the blankets and she under them.

Slowly trying to ease away from him she froze when his arms tightened around her before he grumbled sleepily and rolled onto his back. Lucy edged away and then silently climbed out of the bed and looked around, noting that her hair had come out of the bun that she had put it into last night as she brushed it out of her face. This was clearly the master bedroom since she could could see into the master bathroom and a quite spacious walk in closet, glancing at the bed she tiptoed to the door and held her breath hoping that the door didn't squeak as she pulled it open and eased out when she had it just wide enough to fit through.

Turning she glanced back towards the door then tiptoed down the hall towards the stairs, once at the bottom she headed striaght for her messenger bag and pulled out her phone, checking ti and groaning at the sheer amount of missed calls and texts from her brothers as well as her guardians. Turning she headed for the small bathroom to take care of her needs before she moved into the kitchen as she sighed and called the one person whom was least likely to yell at her.

"Lucy!" Rogue cried, concern and releif in his voice.

Lucy felt a tinge of guilt at having put that there, but then she rmemebered their arguemnt and steeled herself. "Hi Rogue." She murmured softly.

"Are you alright? Where are you? Are you hurt?" He demanded.

Lucy frowned, she'd banked on him being the only calm on in this entire situation, but it was clear that the level headed Rogue was currently freaking out. "I'm fine, Rogue. I'm...at a friends house right now. I'm sorry I really meant to come home last night I guess I fell asleep while we were watching movies and they must have decided to just let me sleep since I was so upset."

"What's the adress we'll come get you." Rogue demanded and she could hear Sting's agitated voice in the background and Rogue's murmured response before Sting erupted.

 _"Where the hell are you!"_ He shouted.

Lucy winced at the loudness and then growled. "With that attitude I'm tempted to hang up and not tell you."

There was a thud followed by Sting yelping before Rogue spoke gently and far more calmly into the phone. "Lucy, honey, there's things that you don't understand-"

"Yea because you guys never tell me anything!" She cut him off and frowned as she moved about the kitchen, noting tha the coffee pot was set to automatically go off in a little bit so she moved to the fridge and pulled it open, surprised at how barren it was. Glancing toward the stairs she pulled out a large package of bacon that was sitting on the shelf. "Besides whats so bad that I can't go over and stay over at a friends house? I mean i understand that I should have called and told you guys, but I'm twenty three years olf, more then old enough to make my own decisions on what to do and where to stay."

"Lucy," Rogue said sharply. "There are people whom don't like our family and would do just about anything to cause us harm."

Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes. "Look Rogue, I get that I freaked you guys out but I'm fine. Okay? Nothing bad happened. A friend saw that I was really upset and they were concerented," Lucy hoped that they didn't try and press whom exactly this 'friend' was. "So they came after me and then brought me back to their place so I could calm down and then we ended up watching movies and I must have passed out. That's all that happened, nothing more nothing less."

"What's the adress?" Sting pestered in teh background.

"Look, I don't know what the adress is, you can tell him that." She growled in annoyance as she carefully set a pan on the stove and turned on the burner. Turning Lucy moved about the kitchen as she waited for the pan to heat up. "Besides I'm enjoying the time away from all you guys, no offense."

"How can I not take offense to that?" Rogue demanded.

"Well think about it." She snorted as she grinned when she found the pantry and held her cell phone between her ear and shoulder as she rifled through it, piling things into her arms to make pancakes from scratch as well as some potatoes fro hash browns. "All that you guys ahve been doing every single morning is waking me up super early to make you breakfast so that it's ready after you're morning run and then every single night you demand that I make dinner for us all even though Virgo is more then willing to make dinner."

"That's because you are the least busy of the two of you." Sting said, his voice suddenly quite clear.

"Sting did you take the phone?" She asked on a sigh as she placed everything onto the counter and held her hand above the pan as if to see if it was hot enough before she quickly laid the first batch of bacon onto it, smiling at the sizzling that filled the air.

"I put you on speaker phone." Rogue said by way of explanation. "What's that sound?"

"I'm making bacon." She siad and grinned at both of their gasps.

"Where the hell is the house?!" Sting shouted.

"Not telling." She teased. "And that the hell do you mean that I'm the least busy of the two of us?"

"Virgo's been doing all of the house work around here, the gardening, making all of the lunches, doing all of the shopping, and making all of the return calls that you miss." Rogue told her a shrug in his voice. "She's been pretty busy."

Sting snorted. "Yea, the least you could do to help her is make breakfast and dinner. After all, all you do is sit on your but looking at papers all day long." He teased.

Lucy froze at the insult. She knew that her brother was just joking, he'd never mean something like that since they all knew that Lucy was working her butt off trying to fix her shop, but to go and say something like that? Even jokingly was not okay, not in the slightest. "Well, see if I ever cook you dinner or breakfast ever again." She snarled and pulled the phone away from her ear and disconnected the call. Setting her phone onto silent Lucy set it onto the counter and sighed, letting her hurt roll of her shoulders before she squared them and looked down at the ingredients in front of her. If there was one thing that she fell back on when she needed a distraction it was cooking, and she had enough here to distract her for at least an hour.

* * *

Lucy was humming to herself softly when the sound of bare feet smacking against tile drew her attention and she glanced up, pausing in her current motion of pulling the last batch of bacon off the sizzling pan. Natsu stood in the doorway to the kitchen one hand resting against the frame as he stared at her in surprise. "G-good morning." She said hesitantly, her cheeks turning pink slightly as she took in his bare chest and the sweats hat were riding low on his hips. It was clear that he'd literally just rolled out of his bed. "I, uh, made breakfast. I hope you don't mind."

He looked down at the food and his eyes widened in shock. "I didn't think I had pancake mix."

"You didn't." She said as she grabbed a plate and filled it and set it at a place mat at the small breakfast bar on the island. "Their homemade. Do you wanna get your own or would you like me to?" she asked.

"Go ahead, I eat a lot though." He said and moved towards the coffee pot. "Did you want any coffee?"

"Yes please." She murmured and filled his plate until he had triple the amount that she had.  
"Luckily you have a lot of butter and syrup so I didn't have to worry about that." She told him as she moved around the island and took a seat in front of her plate, setting his on the other place mat she had prepared and watched as he doctored his coffee with cream and sugar.

"How do you like yours?" He asked and turned slightly so he was looking at her.

"Lots of both." She said as she waited for him.

"Go ahead and dig in, I'm a quick eater so I can catch up to you in no time." He chuckled.

Lucy nodded slightly and picked up her fork and slowly started to eat her hash-browns feeling more then a little uneasy with the situation. It wasn't that talking to Natsu was challenging for her because it seemed that when it was just the two of them he was more relaxed, it was the fact that everything that he had told her was still ringing in her ears and she honestly didn't know how to act around him.

"Feeling confused?" He prompted as he set her cup in front of her and claimed his own seat.

Silently Lucy nodded as she continued to eat.

"That's understandable." He said as he too started to dig in. "I wasn't expecting to tell you everything last night, hell I wasn't even expecting to _see_ you after you left eh bar. But then when I was you walking and that you were crying I just...acted." He paused and glanced at her before staring back down at his food. "I, uh, I called Warrod last night and told him that I told you everything. He's like a father to me since my dad died, I know you're close to him as well so I figured that it would be alright to tell him since he's not going to blab to one of us if we go and talk to him and since you've probably not gonna go talk to your three weird role model people I thought you could use him as a go-to person."

She stared at him in shock. "Compared to what everyone else tells me you're actually pretty sweet." She said.

Natsu stiffened and he glared slightly at her. "Only towards you for some reason. Well you and my little sister."

"You have a sister?" She prompted in surprise.

"Yea, she's at a boarding school that she stays in year round except for holidays." Natsu said and shook his head. "She's a real smartypants. But don't tell anyone that I have a soft spot when it comes to you and Wendy."

Lucy nodded and gave him a smile. "Don't worry I'll let you keep you're bad boy reputation for now."

"Good." He said with a faux growl. "Now lets eat so we can get ready and go face the music for our little sleepover."

Lucy laughed slightly then pushed her unease away and dug into the food earnestly. She was more then aware of the fact that this entire situation was more then a little odd and that normal people wouldn't just sit back and temporarily ignore what he had told them for the moment. No, a normal person would talk it out with him, or hell they would even leave the house instead of make breakfast for the person.

But never in her life had Lucy been known for being normal, not in the slightest. Even her brothers tended to comment on how strange she could be at times. But then she'd just point out that they were just as weird as she and they'd stop their laughter almost instantly.

It took them a little under fifteen minuets to finish their breakfasts and clean up the mess that she'd already partially cleaned up. Both of them had fallen into what she could only describe as companionable silence as they puttered about getting ready to head down to her shop when Lucy froze.

"I can't go there like this." She breathed and turned to Natsu. "Do you have a car?" She asked.

"Nope, but I can get us wherever you need to go." He said then turned and arched a brow at her. "Where do you need to go?"

"My house, I don't have a new change of clothes, and I haven't showered." She said then blushed as she realized what she had said.

He blinked at her then shrugged and frowned slightly. "Do you really need to? I don't find anything wrong with your clothes and I haven't showered either. You look fine and you smell great."

She blinked at him then slowly started to smile, watching as his cheeks reddened slightly. "That's really sweet and all but I don't like going without a shower."

"Uh, okay, you'll have to give me directions but yea we can stop at your house." He said then reached out and swiped up a pair of keys and hit a button. "C'mon, lets get going if you're gonna take a shower, we're already gonna be late as it is."

Lucy followed him and frowned at him. "For your information, I take ten minute showers and I don't even bother with makeup."

"Yea, I know." He said and turned to look at her her with a smirk. "That's another thing I like about you. The list keeps getting longer and longer the more I get to know you." Lucy froze and watched as he continued on to a door that she assumed would lead to the garage as he unlocked the deadbolt. "You coming?" He prompted with a grin as he looked over at her were she was frozen.

As if jolted back to the present Lucy rushed forward and past him then froze as she stared at what awaited her in shock. "You, uh, don't have a car?"

"I have a truck." He said and then shrugged when she turned to look at him. "But It's down at the bar, I carried you home remember?" Grinning he strode over to the Harley and startled it, patting the seat behind him. "Hop on."

She stared at the bike in horror before slowly moving closer. "It's pretty." She said and reaching out gently touched the smooth black painted chrome, admiring the dark crimson ghost flames that seemed almost lifelike.

"She is not an _it_. Now get on." He pushed and reaching out gently tugged her closer to the bike as he pressed a button to make the garage door open. "We don't have time to waste."

Lucy froze. "This is my first time on a Harley, give me a minute, okay?" She snapped softly in embarrassment.

Natsu growled. "It's just like riding a bike, you throw you leg over it and then all you gotta do is hold onto me." When she hesitated even longer he turned to stare at her. "You have ridden a bike before haven't you?"

"Sure," She said then looked away. "When I was eight. It never really was something that I liked doing, but I gave it a go when Capricorn pushed. It wasn't really my thing though so they let it go."

Natsu stared at her for a moment then nodded. "Take your time, I'm in no rush." He said gently, reassuringly.

Lucy made a face at him. "Saying that makes me feel like you are! And you were just yelling at me to hurry up!"

"That was before you told me that you've never really ridden a bike before." He said then motioned to the Harley he was straddling. "And she ain't you typical bike."

"No _she's_ not." Lucy agreed making sure to put the emphases when she refereed to the bike.

"Go ahead and put your hand on my shoulder when you're ready and then swing your leg over so that you're straddling her and put you're feet here." He said and pointed to two foot rests before he turned his attention back to her and watched her as she hesitated.

Taking a deep breath Lucy put her hand gently onto is shoulder and stepped closer to the bike and swung her leg over the bike and slowly lowered herself so she was sitting on the seat, her thighs hugging his hips as she rested them on the food rests he'd indicated. Slowlly she wiggled slightly then frowned. "This is nothing like riding a bike, this is more like ridding a horse."

"What's the difference?" He prompted as he stood and kicked the bike to life with a roar.

Lucy's arms instantly wrapped around his waist as he settled back down onto the seat. "A bike you have to do all the work and you have a hundred percfent control. A horse does all the work and you have to make sure that they know that you're the boss but you don't have all the control no matter what you do."

"Sounds like you know a lot about horses." He called back with a chuckle as he put the kickstand up and walked the bike back out of the garage and paused to hit the key fob that would lower his garage door.

"I grew up on a vineyard that was also a working cattle ranch, of course I know horses." She said incredulously.

Natsu chuckled as he paused and turned his head slightly. "Hang on tight." he called in warning before he twisted the throttle and the bike roared forward and down the road. Lucy squealed slightly and burried her face into his back, her arms wrapped tightly around Natsu's middle. "Where we headed!" He shouted over the wind and the roar of the bike engine.

"Seven eighty-two Arcacia Street!" She shouted back.

"Ah!" He shouted. "Not to far away from the shops!"

"Five minute walk!" She returned then pressed her face into his back when he took a turn a little to sharply for her liking.

* * *

Lucy slowly and shakily climbed from the Harley and straightened, putting her hand on his arm to steady herself before she moved back to give him room to disembark. That had been by far one of the most terrifying experiences of her life. Glancing at him when he chuckled she frowned at the grin he was sporting. "What so funny to you?" She growled.

"You squealed on nearly every turn we took." He chuckled and easily batted away her first as she mock punched him in the stomach.

"Like I've said I've never ridden a motorcycle before and that is _definitely_ not like riding a horse or a normal bike." She said then shook her head. "Sting's truck is gone as is Loki's car so we should be okay. I think the only person that should be home right now is Virgo and I don't think she'll freak out if I bring you inside."

He nodded. "Uh, sure." He murmured and followed her up the small path to her porch and then through the door when she unlocked it and pushed it open.

"Virgo!" Lucy called and paused, moving slowly deeper into the house, for once a little afraid of how the passive woman would react. After Rogue's reaction this morning she wasn't going to put it past Virgo to react almost in the same manner as him since she was just as level headed.

And sure enough there was a crash from her kitchen followed by the sound of multiple running feet.

"Oh gods." Lucy murmured and backed up turning to give Natsu a worried look. "You better run I don't know whose with her."

He arched a brow at her in amusement. "I'll be fine."

Lucy sighed and turned back around just in time to see Sting and Virgo slid dramatically around the corner and barreled towards her, both of them with tears running down their cheeks in thick rivulets. To say that Lucy was shocked speechless at both of their reactions to her arrival was an understatement of the century.

"Lucy!" Sting cried in relief as he slammed into her, lifting her off her feet and into his bear hug as Virgo launched herself into both of them, wrapping her own arms around the two of them.

"Princess I have been so worried about you!" Virgo wailed as she rubbed her cheek against Lucy's where she was sandwiched between the two of them.

"S-Sting? Vir-Virgo?" She stuttered in shock. "I'm fine you can put me down."

"No!" They both shouted.

"You are not allowed to go anywhere!" Sting growled and wrapped his arms around her. "You are staying home with me and Virgo until your an old lady."

"Yea, I don't think that's going to happen." Natsu snorted, finally drawing both Sting and Virgo's attention off Lucy and onto him.

Slowly both of them loosened their death grips on her and physically set her aside to her annoyance as if she were merely a toy. As one they turned to him and stared at him, more or less glared in Sting's case. For Natsu's credit he didn't flinch but remained leaning against the wall in a relaxed almost bored slouch as he stared at them with a disinterested sneer.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Sting snarled aggressively, fisting his hands at his sides.

"Well, Lucy was quite upset last night so I took her home to cheer here up and then she ended up crashing there because she fell asleep and I didn't feel like waking her." He said and shrugged. "Quite simple really."

"Elaborate." Virgo demanded. "The entire evening."

Natsu stared at her for a moment before he sighed and shrugged again. "I was sitting in Fairy Tail when I saw her run past in tears, I chased after her and found out that she was quite upset about something so I asked her what had happened. She told me that she'd gotten into it with you and your emo brother," He said and nodded towards Sting, giving him a disgusted look. "So I tossed her over my shoulder and took her home, mainly because I didn't trust the neighborhoods she was wandering into and I didn't have my truck with me so I took her home to try and cheer her up before I took her home. One thing led to another and she passed out in the middle of a movie and I didn't want to wake her so I let her crash there." He stopped and arched a brow at Virgo as the older woman stared at him intently. "There ya go, that was the entire evening."

"Lucy is this true?" She demanded and turned slightly to look back at her.

"Yes." Lucy said softly, nodding. "He was very nice and very gentlemanly." She added.

Virgo stared at her then sighed and dropped her head slightly before she turned back and stared at Natsu her expression bored once more before she suddenly bowed slightly. "Thank you, Natsu Dragneel, for looking after my charge in her time of need. We are in your debt."

He stared at her silently for a moment then grinned maliciously. "Gildarts wants me to work closely with Lucy since it was his bars fault that her shop got destroyed, he's paying for the majority of her remodeling as a way of apologizing. However those two idiots are going to be getting in my way of doing my job. Keep them out of my hair and we can call the debt settled."

"And why can you not just talk with her when she is on site?" Virgo prompted.

He gave her a droll look. "Because I still got a bar that I have to manage and repairs of my own that I have to oversee that majority of the time. So I'll be spending the majority of the evenings with Lucy going over a schedule of when things are going to be happening, meetings that we got to attend to about certain things. Ya know, pretty much everything." He shrugged.

Virgo stared at him then turned to Sting who was already shaking his head adamantly.

"Not happening." He snarled. "We are not going to be leaving her in this assholes care. Alone."

"You know I am right here and I am an adult." Lucy said, moving around them as if to insert herself into the conversation and folded her arms in annoyance when the two ignored her. Turning slightly she looked up at Natsu when she flet a small tap on her shoulder.

"Go take your shower, I can handle these two on my own." He murmured and gave her a wink.

Lucy flushed before she nodded and turned headed quickly from the room.

* * *

The second she was gone Natsu's expression settled back into his normal glare and he widened his stance ready to the assault he knew was going to hit him. And sure enough Sting whirled around, his fist flying through the airs and would have smashed into Natsu's cheek had Virgo not intercepted and hit a pressure point in Sting's arm making the man hiss in pain as his arm fell back to his side. Surprise flitted briefly through Natsu at the swift interception though he made sure that his facial expression didn't change.

"You must understand that we will do whatever it takes to ensure that Lucy remains separate from anything that has to do with the business that Gildarts and my comrades are involved in." Virgo said softly. "That was the last mission that her parent's left for us to carry out. We were to raise her and be the barrier between her and any evil that tried to seep it's way into her life."

"And we've been doing a damn good job until you showed up." Sting snarled, hatred making his blue eyes harden.

Natsu glanced at the younger man before he turned his attention back to Virgo. "Be that as it may her name is Heartfilia, everyone that is anyone knows that Layla and Jude had a daughter and that she didn't die in that crash. Nobody acted because she was still a child and nothing could be inherited from her until her twenty fifth birthday which is three years from now. Gildarts wants to make sure that everyone knows that she is not only protected by him and all of Fairy tail, but also by Warrod. To do that she has to be seen out in public with either me or Gildarts, but since Gildarts ain't exactly one to be around much that falls to me. It is already known throughout Magnolia that Warrod is very fond of her and will protect her from anybody. Hell he's already done that a couple of times hasn't he?" Natsu growled and slowly he bared his teeth in a grin.

"What is she to you?" Sting snarled.

"She's..." Natsu hesitated and shrugged. "She's to me what Mavis was to Zeref."

Both of them sucked in their breaths in shock before Sting launched himself forward and fisted his hands in Natsu's shirt. "You take that back! Don't you dare say that!"

"Sting keep your voice down." Virgo snarled and glanced down the hallway before she turned back and stared at Natsu where he was prying Sting's hands off his shirt. "Are you certain that this is how you feel for Lucy?"

Natsu gave her a look. "That is something that even I wouldn't joke about. The connection that those two shared was something straight out of a legend, everyone knows who they are and what they went through to keep their love for each other alive." He paused then sighed. "I spoke with Warrod in regards to this."

"And what does he think?" Sting spat with a grunt staggering back when Natsu shoved him back.

"I'm meeting with him later today to talk about everything that happened between me and her and what we are going to do in regards to her safety." He looked between the two of them. "Make no mistake I have no intention of giving her up."

"Giving who up?" Lucy asked, appearing around the hall pushing her wet hair back out of her face, frowning in confusion.

"We were telling him that if he is going to be driving you around that he needs to have a proper vehicle of transport." Virgo said before either man could open his mouth to say something.

"Why?" She said and shrugged. "The motorcycle might be terrifying as all get out but its just as good of a mode of transportation as a car or truck."

Natsu's shoulder slowly started to shake before he threw his head back and laughed. This one woman whom he was so interested in was such a gullible little idiot that if he wasn't careful she would get them both killed. But Natsu did love himself a challenge, and obtaining that which had been very clearly marked as unattainable was just the challenge he had accepted because if he played his cards right he would one day become one of the luckiest men alive because he would have the one woman whom could very possibly mean the entire world to him.

And if push came to shove he would protect her with his life, and he would do the impossible and fight to live for her. Because after all dying was easy, it was living that was the hard part.


	6. Chapter 6

**Authors Note:** **Hi everyone, newcomers and followers, first of all I would like to apologize to you all for the late update. I know I said that I was going to try and post two a month and I haven't been able to do that as of right now. Not going to go into detail but I would like you all to know that my schedule is going to be a bit wonky for a while so the postings are going to be a bit longer in between each other. I'm still going to be working on this story and my other one just wanted to inform you that updates are going to be longer apart. Sorry! Hope you like this chapter! Leave a review if you like, thanks for reading!**

* * *

In the end Lucy had ridden with Natsu to the bar on the back of his motorcycle, having changed into shorts and a loose shirt. She'd been forced to smile when Sting had tried to guilt her into ridding with him and Virgo, and when that hadn't worked he'd tried to argue with her. Not only had that happened but Natsu had stepped in at that particular point in what Lucy assumed was his attempt at helping but had only caused the two men to get into yet another argument that this time led to them getting two inches from one another's faces while exchanging insults and threats. She had looked to Virgo to defuse the situation but the damned pinkette had vanished, no doubt to clean something since she was a massive neat freak. At that point Lucy had been at her wits end so she had gone for the one thing that she knew would defuse the situation with one extremely loud and well time and executed blast.

And so she had moved so she was standing facing them while they argued and had lifted her arm so the air horn was level with the ears and grinned seconds before she pressed down on the button and winced slightly at the noise. But it had worked, the two of them letting out twin shrieks while launching themselves back away from the sound while gripping their ear and falling coordinately onto their butts. She'd grinned down at them when they turned dazed eyes up to her in confused question.

"Now that I have your undivided attention I would like to inform you that I will be ridding back to the shops with Natsu." She then focused on Sting. "You are to stay here for the day, I don't want to see you anywhere near the shop or Levy's cafe. Do you understand?"

Sting opened his mouth a frown settling across his face "Lu-"

She had jerked her hand up and let out another much shorter burst from the air-horn causing him to scuttle back with a yelp. "I wasn't looking for an argument I was telling you that you are staying here today. Do you understand? Keep in mind that I still have a few good blasts left in these and you guys don't know where my stash of these are hidden."

He frowned then nodded. "Okay, okay. Just put that damn thing away." He grumbled still rubbing at his ear.

She grinned. "Good." Turning her attention to Natsu she smiled. "Shall we?"

The sudden stop jerked Lucy back to reality and she looked around noting that they were in the back alleyway to the bar and her shop, she blinked and slowly pulled her arms from around Natsu and carefully climbed off the massive bike. Glancing toward the back door that led into Levy's shop she sighed, not wanting to face everyone since she knew that either Sting or Virgo must have called to inform them that Lucy was going to be arriving via Natsu and his bike. Though she was surprised that they hadn't burst out the back door when his bike had roared into the alleyway.

"We should go and reassure you're family that I didn't harm you in the two minutes that it takes to get here." Natsu growled beside her and Lucy jumped having been startled slightly.

"Y-yea." She agreed and sighed, frowning as she turned back and started to walk slowly towards the door.

"Are you alright?" He prompted, falling in step with her.

"Yea, I'm just a little lost in thought at the moment." She sighed again and shrugged. "I was thinking of everything that still needs to be done and I'm a little at a loss of what to do and when to do this or that."

"Well," Natsu said lowering his voice softly. "You can make a list of things that need to be done then label them from one to whatever, one being the most important and the last number the least important.'

Lucy turned her head and looked up at him before she smiled slightly. "That sounds like a great idea!" She glanced back at the bar then at him. "You know you don't have to come with me, right?"

"And leave you to fend off the wolves?" He snorted and shook his head before he slung his arm around her shoulders and tugged her into him slightly. "Nah, wouldn't even think of it."

Lucy tensed the second his arm settled around her shoulders, unfamiliar with being held in such a manner by anyone other then her idiot brothers, but when he made no move to remove his arm she slowly relaxed as if she were growing accustomed to the weight and feel of it. Trying not to make it obvious Lucy took a deep breath as if she were breathing in the smell of pine and what she could only describe as summer. It was Natsu, the smell of pine and summer were coming from Natsu she realized with surprise. And what had shocked her even more was how much she had liked the smell of pine and summer.

Pulling away from him when they reached the door Lucy stared up at him and took a deep breath. "I have no idea who is here and how they are going to react, we can only hope that it's better then Sting and Virgo's reactions."

Natsu chuckled, his eyes filled with real amusement before he shrugged. "Not really going to change anything no matter how they react to any of it." He said and nodded towards the door. "Lets go."

Lucy nodded slightly and turned, pulling open the door and entering the back of the kitchen and took a deep breath. "Levy, I'm here! I, uh, brought company with me!" She called as the two of them moved through the kitchen, frowning at the lack of noise, even if it was the slight rustle of movement coming from people breathing or a fan shifting paper slightly on a table. She jumped slightly when Natsu rested a hang lightly on her shoulder, stopping her.

"Let me go first." Was all he said before he carefully slid around her and moved silently towards the front of the shop, one hand reaching towards the small of his back and underneath his shirt. It was then that Lucy realized, as she saw a flash of metal, that Natsu had a gun jammed into the back of his pants. She was shocked for a heartbeat before her mind quickly wrote it off as him wanting to feel protected so he opted to carry around a gun instead of bear mace like she had tucked away in her own bag. Though she was wondering how she didn't feel it when she was riding on the back of his bike with him but the realization that he had probably had it tucked in the front of his jeans so thither it didn't dig into either of them. Following close behind him Lucy tried to peek around him and into the seating area as he slowly eased around the corner and out of the kitchen. He froze and he hand tightened on the grip of his gun before he let out a breath and turned slightly to look back at her.

"Your gonna wanna brace yourself I think we're coming into a war zone." He murmured before turning and moving slowly into the dining area.

"Wait Natsu what do you mean?" Lucy hissed after him.

He glanced back at her his lips tight. "You'll find out in a second."

Lucy frowned again in confusion before she rushed after him then froze in shock as she noticed that not only was Rogue and Capricorn and Loki sitting down at the tables looking quite grim, but so were Gildarts and Warrod. Both of them sharing the same grim look that the others were displaying. Though the second that they noticed that Natsu was with Lucy they all gave him a glare before as one they turned their attention to Lucy. Levy was sitting way off to the side looking quite uncomfortable as she fidgeted in her seat and quickly avoided looking at Lucy once she came into sight. It was quite clear just from the atmosphere, not including their body languages or their expressions, that everyone was gearing up for what Lucy could only assume was going to be either one awkward conversation or a very heated conversation, neither of which she wanted to be a part of but one that she was clearly being waited on to have.

"Um, good morning everyone." She greeted tentatively. "What are you all doing here?"

"Lucy," Warrod said softly and motioned to the seat in front of him. "I think you had better have a seat my dear."

Slowly she edged closer and glanced quickly at Natsu where he leaned against one of the tables off to the side, though clearly on her side of the room since everyone seemed to be sitting behind Warrod. "I, uh, wasn't expecting to see you or Gildarts here this morning." She said softly as she slid into the seat, suddenly very nervous with his attention as well as everyone else's solely focused on her.

"I didn't expect to have to come here this morning." He returned gently and settled his hands onto the table, clasped in front of him, his back ramrod straight though his face eased of it's grim expression and was replaced by a gentle almost loving one. "Lucy, there are some things that you and I must discuss. But before we do I would like to tell you that had my hand not been forced to do so I would not have told you any of this for it was your parent's decision to keep this knowledge from you when you were born. Whatever outcome comes of this discussion today I will respect knowing that you have made it and that that is your choice, though if you eventually down the road decide to change it I will respect that as well."

She stared at him in growing confusion, her nervousness making her shift in her chair. "Um, okay. I don't know what's with all the seriousness."

He sighed and shook his head. "Lucy, did you know that your parent's and I were very close?"

She nodded silently, glancing to her brother who gave her a quick reassuring nod. "Yes."

"Did you know that they didn't want you to know certain aspects of their life?" He prompted, his eyes staying glued to her.

She blinked in surprise, her eyes going slightly wide. "I knew that there were some things about them that they didn't want me to know, yes. Capricorn and Virgo told me that much when I asked about things but they never told me because mom and dad asked them not to, even when I became and adult. I never pushed because I wanted to respect their choice."

He nodded. "They asked me as well not to divulge anything to you unless it became paramount that it needed to be. And the circumstances as they are it seems certain things must be revealed to you."

"Circumstances?" She prompted with a frown and looked from him to her family then back. "What 'circumstances'?"

"Lucy I know that you spent the night at Natsu's house." Warrod said softly.

Her cheeks instantly flamed red in and she shot a look towards Natsu who was not leaning forward, his eyes fixed onto Warrod, a killer look on his face as he seemed to be trying to figure out what the hell Warrod was trying to get at with everything. "Y-yea what about it?" She prompted turning her attention back. "I was upset last night and he saw it and brought me back to his place to try and help me calm down and I ended up passing out because I was so tired and he let me sleep instead of waking me and up and trying to get me home."

"You failed to contact anyone about your whereabouts." He said.

Lucy frowned. "First of all I'm an adult, I don't need to tell anyone where I'm going to be or whom I'm going to be with. Secondly none of this concerns you or Gildarts, this is a family thing that involves me and my family and Natsu since I stayed with him last night."

"You are right, Lucy." Gildarts finally spoke up, folding his arms across his chest. "This concerns family. You _entire_ family."

She looked up at him growing frustrated at the circles that were being talked. "Yes, that is what I am saying. It involves me, Virgo, Capricorn, Loki, and my brothers. My family."

"It involves us as well my dear." Warrod added softly, pulling her attention back to him.

"How?" She demanded.

Warrod paused then sighed and shook his head. "There is no easy way to put this Lucy, dear. Did you parent's ever tell you that your grandparents were dead?"

"Yes, mom's parents died when she was little and dad's parent's died when he was a teenager." She said nodding. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Patience Miss Lucy," Capricorn murmured softly. "This is a delicate issue that must be addressed with the utmost care."

Warrod nodded slightly then took a deep breath. "The passing of your grandparents is true for all except your paternal grandfather."

Lucy stared at him, blinking silently before she shook her head. "So you're telling me that my paternal grandfather is still alive?" She demanded.

Slowly he nodded. "Yes, Lucy, he is and he would like you to know that he is very proud of the young woman that you have become and everything that you have achieved in your short years."

Lucy was silent again as she stared at him, taking in his facial features and the way he smiled so familiarly at her, the loving way his eyes bore into hers so achingly familiar that it caused her heart to pang with a sadness that she had thought had eased many years ago. It was in that moment that realization and disbelief cascaded through her and she sat back in her seat, not knowing what to say or even how to act as she simply just stared at him at a loss. Finally after what felt like a lifetime she mustered up the courage to speak around the lump in her throat that had formed in her throat. "Why? Why did you hide it all this time?"

"Your pa-"

"I know that." She cut him off abruptly, shaking her head jerkily as she tried to bite back her tears. "But what I don't understand is why the hell they wanted to keep that from me even if they died? I know I had my brothers and you three, but what I don't understand is why the hell they wanted to keep you from me." She said shakily and fisted her hands where they sat in her lap. "It doesn't make sense why they wanted that kept secret especially when they died, you would think that they would have wanted me surrounded by family."

"They had their reasons, Lucy." Warrod soothed softly. "Those for now will stay tucked away until the time in which they will be revealed. As for now, you must realize that Gildarts isn't just ho he says he is, don't you?"

Lucy shot him a look. "Well since it's 'ambush Lucy day' I would assume so. Who are you really? My adoptive father? My biological brother? My twin? What relationship do you and I possibly share?" She snapped as the tears she had tried so hard to bite back welled up gearing up to spill down her cheeks.

"I'm your uncle on your mother's side." He murmured gently, hesitatingly almost as if he didn't' really want to tell her the truth. "She took after our mother, I took after our father. They didn't want you to know about me either other then I was a close friend of theirs."

Lucy stared at him just as long as she had at Warrod, taking note of the way he smiled at her, the way his eyes crinkled just so as her mothers had every single time she had smiled down at Lucy.

"Lucy," Warrod said softly, drawing her attention back to him. "There are things about the world in which Natsu, Gildarts, and I live in that we all wanted to keep you from. For that reason alone is why your parents made the decision to keep you separated from he and I until you were old enough to make that decision on your own. But when they died we decided that it would be for the best if we just didn't tell you."

"So you took my choice away from me?" She demanded, her chin started to quiver slightly.

"No-"

"You just didn't' tell me." She interrupted, shooting Gildarts a glared when he took a breath as if to speak. "And by not telling me you took my choice from me since I didn't have the information to make it on my own, now did I?"

Everyone was silent as she dashed her hands underneath her eyes to catch the tears that slipped down her cheeks.

"What made you decide that it was time to finally tell me?" She demanded.

"We never expected you to become involved with Natsu." Gildarts said and shook his head. "That was never in our game plan to begin with."

"I'm not involved with him." She said and turned her head and gave him a reassuring half smile before turning back and frowning at Gildarts. "We're just friends who are getting to know one another. I don't know why the hell you would know any of this."

"Warrod is like a father to me." Natsu said suddenly, startling her slightly since he had kept quiet this entire time. "After I got you settled into bed I called him to talk, I mentioned you and everything else to him." He said and glanced at her and shook his head with a disgusted look and she knew it was directed towards himself for divulging so much. "I didn't know anything about this. What surprises me is that Gildarts, you are having me work directly with her on this whole project."

"And I'm removing you from that position, effective immediately, I'm taking your place." The older man said and returned Natsu's glare.

"No." Lucy said softly.

"What?" Warrod prompted in disbelief.

"I said no." She repeated louder.

Gildarts sighed. "Look, Lucy-"

"No!" She shouted and shoved back from her chair, slamming her hands down on the table, startling everyone with her sudden outburst. "You all have been making decisions for me without my knowledge from the time I was four years old! You all decided that I was going to be sequestered away from nearly all civilization except for little spats of trips to a tiny village where I was never let out of sight. You all decided that I was going to be home-schooled and never let loose to be a kid, I never had any friends, I never was able to have a normal conversation with anyone, was never allowed to go shopping on my own I always had my brothers or you three with me. I always wrote it off as you all were overprotective because I was my parents last living legacy to this world, I never once thought that you all were betraying me like you were. I don't doubt without a second that you never meant to hurt me, to make me feel like you were betraying me because I truly feel like you guys never meant to cause any of this pain. But I feel betrayed to my very core. There is nothing that any of you can say that is going to make this feeling go away anytime soon. I trusted all of you and you hid secrets that affected me so directly that even I'm not sure how long it is going to take me to forgive any of you. So far the only people here who I at least thing aren't hiding any massive secrets that affect me as directly as the ones you were hiding are Levy and Natsu. I love you all, don't make any mistake about that barbecue that's never going to change." She sighed softly and shook her head. "But I'm going to need some time, a lot of time, to sort through all of this and come to terms with it. And as for working with anyone on rebuilding my shop, I'm only going to work with Natsu on that, from now on he is going to be the go between for me and anyone else until I can come to terms with everything." Lucy turned her head to look over at him. "If you're okay with that, I mean I know you have a lot-"

"That's fine with me." He interjected softly, still glaring at Gildarts.

"Thank you." She murmured softly, pushing herself up straighter she looked around and wrapped her arms around herself as if to comfort herself. "If we're done here I would like to leave for the day."

"Lucy." Rogue said, finally breaking his silence.

"Yes?" She prompted and turned her head to look at him.

"I would like you to know that Levy had no idea about any of this until roughly thirty minutes before you arrived." He told her and motioned towards her nervous friend. "Out of all of us she has never deceived you."

Lucy turned her head and gave Levy a small smile. "I know," She said then turned back and shrugged when Rogue frowned slightly. "She's a terrible liar plus she can't keep a secret without feeling guilty about not telling me and I can tell when she is feeling guilty because she has some really bad tells. So I know she never knew during this entire debacle."

Levy smiled softly at her releif in her eyes as she gave a soft sigh that Lucy barely caught as she turned and hurriedly exited the shop, ignoring anyone that called after her. She needed to get out of there and fast, otherwise her calm facade would crumble and she would become a sobbing mess in front of everyone. Hell she'd already let a few tears slid past and it had humiliated her to her core. There was one thing that she had picked up from Sting over the years and it was to never cry in front of someone because then they would think that you were weak and that they could walk all over you, you waited until you were completely alone and then you could break down. Hugging herself even tighter as she ducked her head and sank her teeth into her lower lip as she started to shake from the strength of keeping the tears at bay for so long.

"C'mon." Natsu growled, grabbing a hold of her upper arm and pulling her quickly after him and out of the cafe. He pulled her roughly back to his bike and swung on. "C'mon we can go back to my place until you finish getting your head back on straight." He said not looking at her.

Without uttering a word or a sound Lucy climbed on behind him, suddenly grateful that he had seen her yesterday and had felt compelled to ensure himself that she was alright. She had barely started to get to know him but already he had proved to her that she could trust him. Perhaps it was because she was prone to trusting easily, or perhaps it was because with everything going on as of right now Natsu seemed to be the only steady truthful person in her life as of right now. She had no idea what she would do if it turned out that he was keeping a massive secret from her as he family did.


	7. Chapter 7

**AUTHORS NOTE: Okay,** **so sorry it took SO LONG for me to get back to all of my stories! Between finding out I was expecting and then getting fired, moving, and having my baby, everything's been a little hectic so far -_- But hopefully now that things have _slightly_ calmed down I should be able to post more frequently...at least I'm hoping! So here's another lovely chapter, and once again feel free to leave a comment when your done! Hope you all enjoy!**

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Natsu stood in the doorway to his living room and watched as Lucy sat on his couch, her head resting on her knees as she cried softly, not knowing how to comfort the very obviously distraught woman since they had arrived a little less then an hour ago. He had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to comfort her, after all he'd never been placed into this type of situation ever, hell every time he had come into contact with a crying woman he'd about faced and walked quickly away so he wouldn't have to deal with it. But in this situation he couldn't do that to Lucy, not if he wanted to have any chance with her in the future.

Slowly moving forward Natsu crouched in front of her and carefully reached out, gently brushing his hands against her ankles and gain her attention as she slightly lifted her head from her knees to stare down at him. He smiled at her. "Do you want to eat something?" He asked.

Silently she shook her head as tears continued to leave tracks down her cheeks.

"Okay, do you want to play some video games?"

She paused before she took a shaky breath. "What game?" She asked.

"You can pick, or we can pick together. But you have to get up to come and help me pick." Natsu said and smiled at her when she frowned at him. "C'mon."

Lucy glared at him but slowly started to unfold herself from the couch as he pushed himself up to his feet and offered her his hand. "I'm sorry that you got involved in all of this." She murmured as they moved around the couch and to the bookshelf that had his games. "I never expected any of this to happen, well for any of this to be reality."

"I know," He murmured back and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "This was clearly a shock to you hell, I never even made the connection between you and Warrod. He doesn't even look anything like you, neither does Gildarts for that matter."

Lucy sighed and rested her head against him as they stood in front of his games. "I know, it's all still not real to me I guess. It mainly just hurts right now. My whole life everyone's been drilling into me that family is the most important thing in life, that trust and honesty comes second to family and I should always tell the truth and have faith that those who I talk to are being truthful until proven otherwise." She took a shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around herself. "And yet when I need them the most they turn around and do this simply because they don't like the fact that I was with you last night."

Natsu tightened his arm around her gently and took a deep breath. "They meant the best, they did this because they want to keep you safe."

"But how does revealing nearly twenty years of betrayal to me keeping me safe? If anyone is planning to hurt me they were beaten to the punch because my family just sucker-punched me where it hurts the most." She snorted.

"Lucy there are things in this world that are...hidden from the general public, and for good reasons to. Don't ask me to tell you what they are because that is not my place nor are you at all ready to know what they are." He said shaking his head when she turned her head and frowned up at him.

"Why do you think that it's your place to make the decision to hid things from me?" She demanded growing tense against him.

"I don't," He growled shaking his head again as he glared at the games, clearly getting irritated that she wasn't just accepting that he wouldn't tell her what was going on and why. "Just trust me on this Lucy, alright?"

"No." She said and pulled away to turn fully and look up at him. "Not until you tell me why you won't tell me what types of things are hidden and why you won't tell them to me."

"Because you are not ready to know what they are." He snarled then let out a deep breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose as if to try and lessen his anger. "Look, with all the shit that happened today I'm not about to add onto all of it by telling you all the shit that's going on behind closed doors, so to speak. I can guarantee that you'll find out about it all in a due time, just give everything time to settle down and so everyone can come to terms with what happened today, alright?"

"But you will tell me?" She demanded softly, searching his face when he turned it towards her.

"I can't promise that it's going to be me telling you but someone will tell you everything when the time is right." He reassured her.

She searched his face before she nodded slightly and turned back to the games and wrapped her arms around herself. "You have so many games that I don't know and so many that I do know but aren't multiplayer."

"There's always Mario cart or supper smash bros." He said softly as if slightly embarrassed that he owned them.

Her head whipped around so fast it startled him slightly. "You have those games?" She demanded.

"Uh, yea, their right here." He said and pointed to the top shelf of one of the bookcases.

"Wanna play those two?" She asked a sinister smile creeping across her face.

He blinked down at her and slowly he grinned as well. "Sure, why not, I hope you don't mind getting your ass handed to you."

Lucy threw back her head and cackled. "I will have you know that I am world champion Mario cart and super smash bros champion five years in a row before I stopped competing."

"Oh really?" Natsu prompted. "Well, I have never lost a single match in either game."

"Neither have I." She said and grinned. "Prepare to meet your doom." She cackled.

* * *

Angrily Natsu tossed his controller onto the couch as he shoved himself up to answer his phone as it rang suddenly. Glancing over at the still cackling Lucy he moved out of the room as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. Sighing as he noted the number he hesitated before he answered. "Already checking up on her are you old man?"

"Well now that I know she's with you I can relax a little." Warrod said with a deep sigh. "Nobody has been able to get a hold of her since she left with you even through texts and she is normally very reliable when you text her."

"Probably because I turned her phone off once we got here." He said softly as he headed towards his office on the first floor. "You guys never told me that she was damn good at Mario cart and super smash bros." He growled.

Warrod let out a booming laugh. "So she whooped you in your two most precious games now did she?"

"Each and every time." He snarled, Warrod was the only person that he would ever admit that he lost to someone else in regards to anything. "Now, old man what is it that you want, you wouldn't have called just to check to see if she were here."

"As much as I would love to say that that was everything that I was calling you for you are right and it was not. Gildarts return to Magnolia was not just to ensure that Lucy was being well taken care of, he has intel that he must share with you and as soon as possible." Warrod told him, all humor disappearing from his voice within an instant. "As soon as you are able come to the bar, and bring Lucy I would like to speak to her if she is willing."

"Yea, don't think that she's going to want to talk to you or anyone else that she's related to at the moment." Natsu said on a sigh. "She just calmed down about an hour ago and I would like to keep that going since it cost me my damn Mario cart and smash bros record."

"Then in that case just bring her to the bar and let me gauge her for myself." Warrod growled. "She is my granddaughter after all."

"Yea," Natsu drawled dryly as he plopped into his desk chair. "A granddaughter whom you hid yourself from for twenty years. Try seeing it from her perspective and then maybe you'll understand why she's a little upset with you all right now."

"You have no right to speak to m-"

"I have no right?" Natsu snarled, taking a risk in cutting off the older and much more powerful man. "After twenty years of being told that family is one of the most important things in this world and that honesty is a close second, now add to that she suffers a great loss _because of us,_ and suddenly she has this family of _biologically_ related family members whom knew about her but hid themselves from her while still staying an active part of her life, you think she's supposed to be all sunshine and smiles about that? Imagine, if you will, if her parents survived the wreck but you didn't recognize them because of some odd reason, and then twenty years after you've finally gotten over their loss and moved on and were happy they suddenly decide that it's time to reveal themselves to you and then decide that oh you've had at least a few hours to come to terms with everything that they wanted to talk to you. Imagine how you would feel in that situation." He paused to take a breath and at least try to calm himself.

"Be very careful how you talk to me, boy." Warrod growled softly. "I am not one that you wish to cross."

"No you aren't," Natsu agreed but took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "But it seems that I am the only one that is concerned with _Lucy's_ well being at the moment. You haven't even asked how she's doing now have you?"

Warrod sucked in a breath and was silent for a moment. "Natsu, Lucy is the last remaining part of her parents that I and the rest of her family wish to preserve at all cost, even if that means that we cannot be an active part of her life."

"Well, your making damn sure that you aren't a active part of it now aren't you?" He retorted.

Warrod sighed again but this time it was audibly exhausted. "Just bring her to the damn bar and let me speak to her. That is an order."

"The second she starts getting upset I _will_ intervene." Natsu warned him. "I don't give a damn who you are, Lucy comes first."

"And that alone is the reason I convinced Gildarts to let you watch over her."

Natsu snorted. "You ordered him, we both know you wouldn't have been able to convince that stubborn bastard of anything when it comes to family and he has a differing opinion."

Warrod chuckled. "You are correct. I will be expecting your arrival within the hour." And with that the older man disconnected the call.

* * *

Hungry, she was finally _hungry_ , well starving was more so how she felt. Worse was that she didn't want to just raid Natsu's kitchen like she would if she were over at Levy's place. It would just be far to weird to do such a thing when she didn't really know him all that well. And yet as she sat fidgeting on the couch her stomach growling at her the thought of making a raid started to sound more and more appealing as the seconds ticked by. Glancing towards the doorway yet again she let out a sigh and brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them once again, wrapping her arms around them she closed her eyes as she waited, hopefully, for Natsu to return. At least now she would have a moment to process things now that she was calmed down and alone.

Frowning down at the coffee table Lucy sighed yet again. She knew that Capricorn, Loke, and Virgo had her best interests at heart when they agreed to hide everything from her, well that or they were ordered by Warrod to do so, either way she knew that it would have pained them greatly to deceive her. Her brothers on the other hand, now that would have been a totally different story. They tended to keep a great many things from her to keep her from worrying or getting upset. Though they meant well they would always end up making everything infinitely worse then they had already. It was a flaw of theirs that she had come to accept that she would never be able to change no matter how hard she tried, and she had tried for _many_ years to change it. Now Warrod and Gildarts on the other hand, she had never in her life expected either of them to deceive her like this, hell she never even would have pegged them for being blood relatives of hers since neither of them looked anything like her in the slightest, and why now of all times would they want to become involved in her life was beyond her.

"Hey."

Lucy jumped, jarred out of her thoughts before she turned her attention to Natsu as he leaned against the doorway. "Yea?"

"You okay?" He prompted, frowning slightly more then what she assumed was his normal.

"Yea, I was just thinking." She said and shrugged.

"By glaring down at my coffee table?" He pressed, arching a brow a corner of his lips tilting up into a smirk.

She arched a brow of her own. "So it's okay for you to prance around with a scowl plastered across your face while in public, and yet when I frown down at a _coffee table_ you question me? Isn't that a lot like the pot calling the kettle black?"

Natsu chuckled slightly. "Probably you, however it seems that you are almost always all cheers and smiles whereas I am not. It makes sense for me to scowl nearly all the time at nearly anything and everything."

Sighing Lucy rolled her eyes as she shifted so she was sitting cross-legged on the couch. "So what's up Mister Grumpy?"

"I have business that I have to attend to at the bar, if you want you can come with me, I'm sure Mira can keep you company." He said and shrugged. "You can stay here too if you want. I think there might be some food in the kitchen you could eat."

"I'll go, last time I was there Mira made a really good burger and I'm hungry as hell." She said and unfolded herself from the couch.

"You sure you want to go with?" He prompted, an uneasy look crossing his face before before he looked away. "The old man might be there, same with Gildarts. Those two never get to far from each other when the red haired bastard is in town."

Lucy froze for just a second before she internally shook herself. "Yea, I'm hungry and Mira's cooking is good enough to coax me out of hiding." Pushing herself up from the couch she turned to face him.

"And if they come up to talk to you?" He prompted his face expressionless.

"I'll deal with that if it happens." She said and took a deep breath before giving him a broad smile. "Lets go, you seem to be pretty important there so I don't want to keep them waiting for to long just becuase you weren't confident that I can handle myself. I think I've done pretty good thus far."

"Yea." He said drawing out the word. "Having a break down on my couch is handling it pretty well."

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him, her lips compressing into a thin line. "I was not having a break down, I was merely coming to terms with everything that had happened."

Natsu chuckled. "If that's what you call it."

Growling softly Lucy folded her arms and stormed forward until she was standing nearly toe to toe with him, her head tilted back so she could look him in the eyes. "Are we going to go or not?" She demanded.

His brows arching Natsu tilted his head while the corner of his lips twitched up into a coy smile. "And here I thought you were supposed to be all shy and kind tempered."

"Until someone irritates me or I'm having a very emotional day." She retorted sharply. "Which seems to be one of those days for being irritated and very emotional."

Chuckling again he pushed off from the door frame and stepped back, his hand sweeping out to beckon her down the hallway. "After you."

Frowning up at him Lucy strode past him towards the garage door and the waiting Harley. "You know that you're really annoying, right?"

"So I've been told by many people." He grunted as he followed her.

* * *

Slowly pulling her arms from around Natsu's waist Lucy slid off the back of the Harley and glanced towards the back door of cafe and the light that shown through it's window. Sighing softly to herself she wondered if Levy or one of her family members were in there making a late dinner for everyone whomever was hard at work making the plans to rebuild her bookshop. Part of her wanted desperately to walk in there as if nothing had happened, just to listen to the beautiful cadence of their bickering and laughter. But she knew that to do so would just make them all think that she was letting everything slide just as she had done so many times in the past. Turning she followed Natsu as he strode to the large wooden door that obviously led into the back of the bar, ducking underneath his arm as he held the door open for her Lucy glanced around at the interior of the building, surprised to see that it was mainly constructed of wood and not brick.

"C'mon." Natsu growled as he strode past her down the hallway towards a growing cacophony of sounds and what she assumed to be the main part of the bar. "If your lucky nobody will bother you while I'm taking care of things."

She looking up at the back of his pink haired head. "You don't need to worry about me, for what it looks like, I can actually take care of myself."

He glanced back at her. "You clearly haven't frequented this bar have you?"

"Uh, no." She said and gave him a broad grin. "But I grew up with Sting and Rogue so it's not going to be that big of an issue to handle if I do get harassed."

Turning slightly Natsu paused at a doorway and frowned down at her. "I really don't understand you."

Laughing softly Lucy shrugged. "I know, not many people do, and that's kinda how I like it."

Pushing it open he waited for her to precede him. "Just keep your guard up I doubt many people will harass you, but with the idiots that frequent this place you never know. And if they do just signal Mira to help you and she will." He grumbled as he moved around her, his hand gently pressing into the small of her back as she stopped to take in wide open room filled with rowdy bar-goers.

Looking around Lucy allowed Natsu to steer her towards the bar as she took in the sights and sounds of the nearly packed bar, she was surprised at how strong the scent of alcohol permeated the air, but then she knew that this _was_ a functioning bar and that of course it would smell strongly of alcohol. "I never knew that it would be so..."

"Overbearing?" An amused gentle voice prompted as they reached the bar.

Lucy turned her head and smiled broadly at Mira. "That's a good way to put it I guess."

Mira chuckled softly then looked at Natsu. "Gildart's waiting for you in the upstairs office."

Natsu gave a sharp nod then jerked his head towards Lucy. "She's hungry."

"Well why didn't you say so!" Mira chided and gave Lucy chiding look. "Sit, sit and I'll get you something. Do you have an idea of what you might want?"

"A burger and fries if that's not to much trouble?" Lucy asked with a smile as she slid onto one of the bar stools.

"Of course it's not!" Mira exclaimed and reached out, patting her hand gently. "Do you want anything to drink while you wait? Water? Soda? Or beer?"

"Coke would be great." Lucy said. Mira nodded and moved off to get her her drink. "How long do you think that you'll be?" She asked turning to look up at Natsu.

He shook his head. "I have no idea, I'll try to make it as quick as possible though."

"No need, I was just curious." Lucy said then reached out and touched his forearm. "You should go, it sounds pretty important if he's been waiting for you."

Natsu hesitated then frowned down at her. "You sure you'll be alright?" He prompted.

Lucy sighed. " _Go_ I'll be _fine_ , besides I doubt Mira will let anything happen to me. She seems like the motherly type."

"That she is." He murmured then growled in the back of his throat. "Have her page me if anything happens."

"Will do." Lucy said and sassily saluted him. "Now _go_."

With another much louder and deeper growl he finally backed away a few steps then turned and headed off towards another door that she hadn't noticed. She found it slightly endearing that he was so hesitant to leave her alone in the bar, but she also found it just as irritating that he was so hesitant to leave her. Yes she might seem like the type that wouldn't be able to look after herself in this type of setting since she normally spent most of her time in her bookshop, or Levy's cafe, but she really did know how to handle herself. After all she had gone to Crocus University for six years to get her masters, and she'd made sure to take self defense classes as well as mastering traditional jiu-jitsu to make sure that she could handle herself in any situation that she was put in. Though she hadn't told her brothers or her caretakers that she had felt the need to enroll herself into those classes after she had nearly been assaulted on her way home from class one time. And the fact that she never bragged that she had mastered jiu-jitsu during her first four years at CU didn't help the fact that most people thought she was just a weakling.

"So I see Natsu's found a new play toy for the time being." A snide voice said from beside her.

Lucy looked over and blinked at the small woman next to her, her familiar white hair cut short. "I'm sorry what?" She asked in confusion. "I don't follow what you mean."

She gave an irritated sigh. "You're Natsu's new play toy, duh." She spit out. It's very obvious at the territorial way he acted around you."

"You must be mistaken." Lucy said and shook her head. "He's just looking out for me, it's been a rough couple a days and he's just being nice."

The woman snorted. "Of course he is. I bet you'll still be saying that once he fucks your brains out too."

"Lisanna!" Mira snarled, gaining both girls attention.

Rolling her eyes Lisanna looked over at the older woman. "What?"

"Don't talk to people like that!" Mira snarled frowning at the younger woman. "I've already had this conversation with you, it's inappropriate and very disrespectful!"

"And your point? I was just making small talk with her." Lisanna retorted.

"You were insulting her and you know it!" Mira growled, her temper obviously rising.

"I-it's not a big deal, honestly Mira." Lucy interjected, growing more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by. "We were just talking."

"There's no need to try and cover for her," Mira told her gently with a soft look before she turned her gaze, which was once again angry, back to the other white haired woman. "Lisanna has a tendency to be rude to people. But right now she has to get back to waiting tables." with that she pushed a tray full of glasses towards the other woman. " _Now."_

With a huff Lisanna stormed away from the bar effortlessly carrying the heavy tray with one hand.

"I apologize for her inappropriate behavior and words to you, Lucy." Mira said softly as she placed her drink in front of Lucy.

"You don't need to." Lucy said reassuringly giving her a smile. "I'm just curious as to why she said that about him."

Mira hesitated. "Natsu's always been a bit of a...playboy, for lack of better words. He moves from woman to woman quickly, he doesn't like to be attached to any woman for longer then a few days if that. A few months ago he and Lisanna, uh, enjoyed each other's company. Then just last month, I think, he started to distance himself from her, and now he barely acknowledges her."

"Oh." Lucy murmured softly and turned to look at the younger woman. "So she thinks that he's moved onto me huh?"

"Precisely. I'll be right back, I think you're food should be just about done." Mira said with a nod. "Anyway I know that that's not the case with Natsu this time," Mira said as she returned with Lucy's food and set it down in front of her. "He's just looking out for you after everything that has happened."

Lucy turned and looked at her with a confusion in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Gildart doesn't really keep secrets when it comes to me, and since he's a main pillar for this bar he comes and goes at all hours. He told me everything that happened, Lucy." Mira said softly. "From what it sounds like, Natsu honestly does care about you, and not in his normal rough and tumble kind of way either, he's a lot more...considerate when it comes to you."

"That is true." A deep familiar voice rumbled from behind her and Lucy tensed.

Closing her eyes for a brief moment she let out a sigh and turned to look back, she stared at him for a second before turning back around. "What do you want Warrod?" She asked softly.

"Merely to talk with you, child." He answered. "If you are willing to hear an old man out."

Lucy sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation before she beckoned to the empty bar-stool beside her. "I'm not really in the mood to talk but I guess I'll listen while I eat." She said in indignation.

Warrod let out a breath and moved to take the seat next to her, folding his hands on the bar. "Mirajane, might I trouble you for scotch on the rocks?"

"Of course!" Mira chirped happily and reached down to fill his order.

"Talk if you want to talk." Lucy murmured softly as she reached down and picked up her burger. "As soon as Natsu comes back I'm leaving with him."

"Very well." Warrod said and took a deep breath.

* * *

Natsu stared over at Gildarts, they'd already finished up the conversation about the Intel that the older man had gathered, but it was clear he had more that he wanted to talk to Natsu about. And Natsu had a feeling that it had something to do with a certain blonde haired beauty that sat at the bar downstairs no doubt talking with Warrod at this very moment since the older man had nearly run out of the room once Gildarts had finished sharing said information. And whether this turned into a brawl between the two of them as all their past conversations, well that remained to be seen.

"If you got something to say say it." Natsu growled, crossing his arms across his chest. "I don't have the time or patience to deal with your shit right now."

Gildarts narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "My niece, she's off limits."

This time it was Natsu who narrowed his eyes at the other man. "Don't you think that Lucy's a little to old for you to pull that shit on her?"

"Not when she's my family." Gildarts growled in return.

"Look old man, I get that she's related to you, I do and I can respect that. To some degree. But what I won't respect is that you are now trying to control her life after being absent in it for the past twenty some odd years." Natsu snarled and shoved himself out of his chair. "Lucy is old enough and capable enough to make decisions about her life without you stepping in and disrupting everything. And I sure as hell ain't going to listen to someone who hides themselves from family for over two decades."

Gildarts narrowed his eyes dangerously at the younger man. "You don't get to talk to me like that you little bastard." He snarled and slowly rose until he towered over the smaller man by only a handful of inches.

"Ya know what I think I do cause right now where I'm standing all anyone but Levy and Cana seem to have hurt her knowing that it was going to hurt her in the end." He snarled back.

"Then let me make this crystal clear, from now on you are only to protect her, you are not to court her in the pursuit of a relationship of whatever the hell you call those flings you have." Gildarts ordered.

"Fuck you and your orders." Natsu spat in return. He watched as Gildarts famed patience finally snapped and all the bottled up frustration and rage he'd bottled up for god knows how many decades finally snapped within the two seconds it took Natsu to spit out those five measly words.

The older man swung, his fist colliding with Natsu's cheek and sending him flying across the room and into the built in bookshelves, spilling the majority of it's contents onto the hardwood floor as Natsu grabbed one of the shelves to keep himself from landing on the floor along with the books. straightening he lifted his head and reached up with his free hand and wiped away the blood trailing down his cheek from his fresh cut with the back of his hand. He took a deep breath and weighted his options. The first option being that he could drop to his knees and accept whatever retribution Gildarts decided to dish out and hope that it didn't take him out of commission for several days with the severity of it, or the second option he could stand by his decision to challenge Gildarts and hope that he didn't lose to badly. And he would lose, Natsu knew that for a fact, after all you didn't reach on step below the head honcho and not be one helluva tough son-of-a-bitch and not be someone whose nearly impossible to beat in a fight.

It took him all of two seconds to process his choices and make the one for him.

With a deep breath Natsu charged the bigger man, slamming into him and taking them both to the ground in a flurry of punches and elbows. It was clear by the strength of Gildarts punches that he was not going to be holding _anything_ back in this fight, not-for that matter-that Natsu expected nor wanted the older more experienced man to, that above anything would have been an insult that neither man would have thrown in the other's face out of sheer respect to the opponent.


	8. AUTHORS NOTE!

**Hello my beloved readers!**

 **I just wanted to tell you all that I have been working hard on these stories while also raising my toddler (NOT AN EASY FEAT!) so I have a lot of chapters of both "Skyful of Stars Isn't Enough" and "When Sparks Fly Through the Heavens" that I need to edit then post.**

 **It has been CRAZZYYYY here so it's taken me longer then I thought it would and it's a little frustrating! However more posts are coming so bare with me on this crazy ride! So with that being said I have no idea when Im going to be able to post them because I've been writing more chapters then I've been editing then(hehe oops!). So things are happening the stories are coming together better then I expected so please have patience with my crazy posting schedule!**

 **Thank you all for the support that you've given me in all my stories and I hope that you like the upcoming chapters, don't get to mad about all the twists and turns the stories take! Love you all, please feel free to favorite and review any that you don't, and even if you don't that's cool too! Thank you all for reading! Farewell for now!**


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